Former federal monitor: ‘May take a while’ before SPD is ready to end consent decree

Merrick Bobb had been the federal monitor overseeing Seattle’s consent decree since 2013. On Tuesday, Judge James Robart, the federal judge overseeing those reforms, named a new monitor following Bobb’s resignation.

Judge appoints two new monitors in Seattle police consent decree

Bobb spoke on his decision to resign, saying that it was time to move on after nearly eight years. Over that period, he almost led the city of Seattle and the SPD through the final chapter of the consent decree, entailing a two-year sustainment period of full and effective compliance.

“That’s pretty much what my goal had been in all this is to get all the way out [of the two-year sustainment period],” said Bobb in a virtual interview from his home in Los Angeles.

But Seattle came up short of completing that two-year period.

“There were some events that intervened, including the protests and demonstrations,” Bobb said. “It will be part of the job of the next monitor to help get them back to the point that they were when they were in full and effective compliance.”

Regarding his time as monitor, Bobb is proud of what was accomplished.

“There is no question that the city has made tremendous progress under this consent decree,” he said. “It is in a far different place than it was seven and a half years ago, right in the wake of the shooting of the woodcarver [John T. Williams].”

However, he says recent events, including SPD’s response to protests over the death of George Floyd, have proved to be a significant setback for the city.

“What happened was very unfortunate, and I think it had a lot of people very concerned and disturbed that perhaps the SPD really had forgotten the lessons of the consent decree,” Bobb explained.

“I happen to believe that the department is capable of getting back into compliance, [but] it may take a while,” he added, noting it will require Seattle to make significant changes in policing, and not just to its crowd control policy.

“[They need to] have a real and a reformed disciplinary and accountability system, which they don’t have at this point,” Bobb said.

That, he says, will involve taking a hard look at collective bargaining and the police union, among other things.

“There are lots of players and it’s quite complex,” he noted.

In a letter obtained by the Seattle Times, Bobb also said the “SPD is at its nadir,” and in desperate need of a new police chief from outside the agency to bring some much needed leadership.

As for his replacement, appointed by Judge Robart:

“Based upon reputation, what he’s done, and if you look at his resume and everything else, he’s an outstanding choice,” said Bobb, referring to Dr. Antonio Oftelie, a Harvard fellow with an impressive resume on police, policy, and technology.

In recent articles, Oftelie has urged calm, caution, and bridge building when it comes to calls for 50% defunding of police. That includes an article in Crosscut, where he says that instead of slashing funding, the city’s focus must be on ending police brutality, protecting vulnerable people, and creating the future of public safety. In a Medium article, he expands on that by saying any such effort must include shifting priorities and funding to address social problems, rather than criminalizing them.

Judge Robart also named Monisha Harrell as deputy monitor.

Seattle gets more time to comply with police consent decree

Harrell is the chair of Equal Rights Washington, and a major player in police reform and accountability efforts from Seattle to Olympia and beyond, having been a main driver of I-940, the state’s new police accountability law. She also currently serves on Gov. Jay Inslee’s task force to reform independent investigations on deadly use of force, and is working with legislators on dozens of police reform bills for the upcoming session.

The new monitor, Oftelie, was also a commissioner on the Commission for the Future of Policing in Ireland, the same commission former Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole was on.

Bobb describes O’Toole as “an ideal of a progressive police chief,” who did more to push reforms and compliance than anyone else in the city.

“The advice I have [for Seattle] is to learn as much as they can from the recent protests, and decide how they have to change their training and teaching approach to large crowds. One of the things they’re facing that they’ve not faced before is the degree to which there are people really bent on violence who are part of the mix,” Bobb explained.

“I mean, they were part of the nation WTO and some of the other protests and things before, but not quite to this degree, and SPD is just going to have to learn how to do better with those,” he added.

One thing Bobb says he won’t miss: Seattle politics.

“The Mayor, City Council, City Attorney, CPC, and other community groups and organizations must really try to work together and not at cross purposes,” wrote Bobb in the letter obtained by the Times. “I will not miss the endless jockeying and some runaway egos.”

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