Olympia police say transparency is keeping protests peaceful

While tensions remain high in Olympia following this week’s police shooting of two unarmed black men suspected of shoplifting, there’s been no violence.

It’s somewhat surprising, especially in light of widespread clashes between police and protesters in Ferguson, Baltimore, and elsewhere.

An estimated 500 demonstrators dispersed without incident following protests in downtown Olympia Thursday evening. A big reason could be the city is bending over backwards to provide as much information as possible about the shooting and investigation.

Related: Police recording captures Olympia shooting

That includes multiple press conferences and a dedicated website with links to everything from videos to the 911 dispatch recording.

“We think our community has a right to know and we think that it helps them understand the situation and what’s going on,” said Laura Wool, a public information officer for the Olympia Police Department.

The city has been working for several years to improve transparency, Wool said. But incidents like Ferguson have played a big part in shaping how the city is handling its response to this week’s shooting.

“In a situation like this, we know that the community has a lot of concerns and especially given recent national events, we wanted to make sure that we got out as much information as we could as quickly as we could,” Wool said.

That information includes department policies for use of force and protocols for investigating officer-involved shootings. Wool said as more information becomes available, it will quickly be added to the website.

“We’re getting comments from our community asking us ‘gee, we’d love to see the general orders, or we’d love to see your guild contract,’ and every time we get one of those, if it’s something we can put up on the web, we do that right away,” she said.