Police Commission Unsure How Many People Received Survey on Mayor Harrell's Proposed Crowd-Control Rules

On Nov. 25, the Community Police Commission (CPC) sent out a survey asking recipients to evaluate Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell's proposed crowd-control ordinance, which would give the Seattle Police Department (SPD) expanded latitude to use so-called "less lethal" weapons against the public. The seven-question survey closes Jan. 6, 2025.

As written, the ordinance allows officers to preemptively use "less lethal" weapons against people, stating that officers may deploy them if "specific facts and circumstances are occurring or about to occur that create an imminent risk of physical injury to any person or significant property damage."

For those who experienced and witnessed SPD's treatment of protesters in 2020, such a survey, which includes specific questions about that summer's protests, would allow them to make their concerns with the ordinance known.

But the survey was only sent to people who are signed up for the CPC's email list. (This journalist received a survey.) The CPC's original survey email reads, "After completing the survey, please share it with your networks if possible."

In an unsigned email, the CPC confirmed that it doesn't have an estimate of how many people received the survey, and does not know who received it. It has no way of tracking dissemination or availability. The CPC did not provide information on how many people are on its email list.

The CPC is the "community-facing" arm of Seattle's three-part police-accountability system, alongside the Office of Police Accountability (OPA) and the Office of Inspector General for Public Safety (OIG). The CPC's on-paper role is to listen to and communicate the public's concerns to its accountability partners and to the federal court.

The survey is composed of four "rating" questions and three optional description questions. One question reads, "In 2020, there were a number of protests following the death of George Floyd that prompted SPD crowd management response and revisions to SPD's crowd management policies. To what extent do you believe crowd management has improved since 2020?"

The CPC survey prompts the respondent to rate from "Significantly worse" to "Significantly better," with an optional section for the respondent to describe their answer in more detail.

Some people who received the survey voiced concerns with how it is supposed to reflect the public's voice. They have pointed to how the survey was distributed, its lack of public availability, and its wording.

For BJ Last, its distribution "was really problematic."

"I can't figure out how the CPC went about distributing it," Last said. "It seems like something that only some people that follow [the] CPC closely received. The limited distribution prevents a lot of Seattle from being able to provide input."

"The Commission and its partners will continue [to] encourage recipients to share [the survey] amongst their networks," a CPC spokesperson told the Emerald (in an unsigned email). "The LISTSERV is the tool that CPC uses to communicate with anyone who subscribes to receive updates from the CPC."

As of Dec. 16, the survey was not listed on the CPC's home page.

When the Emerald asked why, the CPC did not answer.

While the crowd-control survey is not on the website, another one is: the CPC's survey regarding the new Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) contract.

That survey was posted to the website this past summer, following months of home-page publicity about the contract and invitations to the public to attend meetings about it.

"Reach out to OCPC@seattle.gov if you need assistance or have questions," the CPC's home- page message regarding the SPOG contract survey reads as of time of publication.

In 2020, the world witnessed SPD officers' use of "less lethal" weapons on protesters. Among the many people who were injured, as a result of officers' weapon use, was a young woman whose heart stopped and who, it was later reported, had to be resuscitated multiple times on her way to the hospital after an officer hit her in the chest with a blast ball. A bystander journalist forever lost her hearing. A police officer pepper-sprayed a 9-year-old child in the face.

On Sept. 7, 2020 — the date of the 2020 Labor Day protest — police unleashed a barrage of less lethal weapons and crowd-control tactics on protesters, based on a false pretext of harm.

After receiving the crowd-control survey, Last pointed out that if people do not know how the survey was distributed, "there's currently no way of telling who the CPC used as its proxy for 'community' and who was left out of this process."

Another person, A, who spoke on condition of anonymity for privacy reasons, pointed out that the survey "obfuscates what the ordinance does" and that it focuses "on the wrong details."

For instance, A said, "What does property damage mean to SPD? That is something not mentioned in the survey at all. So there's an implied assumption we trust SPD with that judgment."

A also sent the Emerald a short statement regarding the seemingly minor details about the ordinance that would have serious and far-reaching ramifications in real life, which the survey does not address.

In the case of what constitutes an officer's judgment of property damage, A says they wondered if the standard of "significant property damage" would likely fall under the definition of "malicious mischief."

"If the police department uses the third-degree malicious mischief standard, any damage to property would be considered 'significant property damage' and would enable police to deploy blast balls and other uses of force as escalation in response to any damage to property," A said.

A also notes that the ordinance includes wording that specifically points out that the department may, according to Washington State law, deploy tear gas, blast balls, and other less lethal weapons in response to a riot. But, A said, "At its extreme, the standard of riot requires three people (at minimum) to enact property damage, before the deployment of blast balls and other uses of force as escalation in response to any damage to property."

A also wrote that "property damage" is listed in all three Washington State law-defined categories of malicious mischief.

Such property damage may then include "chalking," or writing on a sidewalk in chalk. Seattle police wrongfully arrested protesters in 2021 for chalking. Those protesters recently won a major settlement against the City of Seattle.

"In the heat of the moment, loose interpretation is easy," A said.

Alice Lockhart, another CPC survey recipient, says she was concerned over the lack of visible survey distribution and publicity.

Lockhart also noted the distinct lack of context in the survey, namely that Harrell's ordinance would repeal existing legislation in the Seattle Municipal Code meant to bar the use of less lethal weapons. The Seattle City Council created this legislation after witnessing what officers did during the 2020 protests.

"Mentioning the new legislation without explaining the legislation it undoes is totally disingenuous," Lockhart said.

Lockhart also takes issue with the seventh question, which reads, "Mayor Harrell recently proposed new legislation that, if passed by City Council, would prohibit the use of crowd management tools, such as blast balls and pepper spray, 'unless specific facts and circumstances are occurring or about to occur that create an imminent risk of physical injury to any person or significant property damage.' Do you agree with this proposal? Why or why not?"

"The more I sit with the final question in the CPC survey, the more offensive I find it," Lockhart said. "Taken by itself, the question leads an unknowing reader to think that this legislation curbs SPD use of so-called less lethal weapons, when, in fact, it undoes previous legislation and opens the door to SPD to resume using dangerous force against peaceful protesters."

Lockhart was one of the nearly 20 members of the public who spoke against the proposed ordinance at the Seattle City Council's Public Safety Committee meeting on Dec. 10.

There were no commenters in favor of the ordinance.

Update: On Dec. 18, the day after this article was published, the CPC sent our reporter an email that said the survey is now available on its site: “We have posted the survey on the CPC’s front page.”

The Community Police Commission survey on Harrell's proposed crowd-control proposal can be found online.