OPINION | The Affected Persons Program: Seattle's Broken Promise to Families Impacted by Police Violence

by Castill Hightower

(This op-ed was copublished with Real Change.)

I finally felt some relief.

Almost 20 years have passed since my brother, Herbert Hightower, was murdered by Seattle police. Almost 20 years since we struggled to bury him and felt we had no voice or community. So when, at my instigation, the City Council passed legislation in 2022 to create an Affected Persons Program (APP) workgroup, I felt we would finally be able to bring some level of aid and representation to those most affected by police violence.

The APP was inspired by a program that has existed in Ontario for a decade. It was intended to give victims and families a voice and leadership in creating a first-of-its-kind Seattle City office dedicated to providing resources and support to the people most affected by police violence. After conversations with families like my own, who either survived police violence themselves or lost a loved one, it became apparent that many of our ongoing and often overlooked needs intersected.

Needs such as long-term support for victims and families like that of Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old student from India senselessly hit and killed by an SPD cruiser driven by officer Kevin Dave. Kandula's killing was mocked by SPOG leaders caught on body-cam footage hours later.

Support for these needs could include burial and funeral fees, attorney and private investigator fees, travel expenses for out-of-state and overseas families, mental health resources, childcare costs, assistance navigating often re-traumatizing bureaucracies, and more. The APP workgroup, which was meant to center and be led by affected people, would examine all these forms of support and more. What actually happened created more disenfranchisement, silencing, and exclusion.

The City pays millions of dollars in legal fees and damages in cases of police officers who brutalize and murder community members. It offers absolutely nothing to victims whose loss and trauma was created by those City employees, Seattle police. It recognizes its moral obligation to support victims of gun violence but makes an exception should the perpetrator be a cop. This shameful disparity was to be addressed by the APP workgroup, which was meant to begin meeting in January of 2023, ironically days before Kandula was killed.

As we mourned yet another death at the hands of SPD, we received delay after delay from Gino Betts, the director of the Office of Police Accountability, which held the workgroup funding. We were given the excuse that they had issues hiring and assigning a project manager, regardless of having $50,000 for the first year's funding.

More time passed and we learned that an unofficial meeting was held without affected people to discuss a cap on the number of people allowed in the workgroup and the definition of an affected person, despite that definition being made plain in hours of public comment, phone conversations, emails, and Zoom meetings.

Some of us were able to join a second "unofficial" meeting, again scheduled by Betts, that mostly included City employees and non-affected community members invited by his office. Silence fell over the attendees when I pointedly asked if there was anyone in attendance who took issue with the workgroup being led by, centering the voices of, and being mostly composed of affected people. Unfortunately, it did not deter more offensive suggestions by Betts and other non-affected attendees to discuss, yet again, a cap on the number of affected people in the workgroup as well as an unnecessary and obstructive examination of the definition of affected person before any work could begin.

After six months of delays by the OPA, we were told we could move the funding for the workgroup to the Seattle City Council general office. As we were waiting for the transfer, the City Council office then abruptly advised us that the funding was being blocked by the Mayor's Office. We were told that the mayor wanted to control the workgroup and would be adding two members of the federal monitor's team, despite prior clear communication, even written into the legislation, of the importance of the workgroup's independence from the executive. The mayor taking control of the funding gave his office inappropriate decision-making power at the continued exclusion and expense of affected people.

Our last update from the Mayor's Office was on Sept. 27, when we were advised that they are now assigning the federal monitor to review "the concept of an affected persons program" in preparation of an assessment of "Seattle's police accountability systems, including OPA, OIG, and the CPC." We had also expressed the importance of the workgroup's independence from these three entities. This furthered the exclusion of affected people who wrote and helped pass the legislation and who were meant to be put at the front and center of the workgroup.

Affected people do not need those with a conflict of interest to decide for us how best to address the harm their bureaucracies, policies, and employees create. We are the ones who bear the brunt of a lack of access to resources and support and therefore we should be the ones to lead and be centered in the conversation on what we need to begin to heal.

We are now working on introducing a second amendment for an APP workgroup for this year's Seattle City budget that would steer it back into the hands of affected people. This is a chance for the City Council to address the material harms created not only by police violence but the harm created after a year of needless bureaucratic delays. It's a chance to actually center and listen to victims and their families, it's a chance for hope.

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Castill Hightower is an activist directly impacted by police violence in Seattle after her brother, Herbert Hightower Jr., was shot and killed by Seattle police officer Steve Hirjak in 2004, while Herbert was experiencing a mental health crisis. She continues to fight for justice for Herbert, other affected families and survivors of police violence, as well as for a multitude of social issues. She views her work through a political lens that prioritizes a bottom-up approach, underscoring the value of solutions originating from the quest for autonomy, as opposed to saviorism.

📸 Featured Image: "We Want to Live" rally held in South Seattle on June 7, 2020. (Photo: Alex Garland)