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Two Programmers Expose Dysfunction and Abuse In the Seattle Police Department
reifman writes: Programmers Eric Rachner and Phil Mocek are now the closest thing Seattle has to a civilian police-oversight board. Through shrewd use of Washington's Public Records Act, the two have acquired hundreds of reports, videos, and 911 calls related to the Seattle Police Department's internal investigations of officer misconduct. Among some of Rachner and Mocek's findings: a total of 1,028 SPD employees (including civilian employees) were investigated between 2010 and 2013. (The current number of total SPD staff is 1,820.) Of the 11 most-investigated employees—one was investigated 18 times during the three-year period—every single one of them is still on the force, according to SPD.
In 569 allegations of excessive or inappropriate use of force (arising from 363 incidents), only seven were sustained—meaning 99 percent of cases were dismissed. Exoneration rates were only slightly smaller when looking at all the cases — of the total 2,232 allegations, 284 were sustained. This is partly why the Seattle PD is under a federal consent decree for retraining and oversight. You can check out some of the typically excellent Twitter coverage by Mocek from his #MayDaySea coverage.
In 569 allegations of excessive or inappropriate use of force (arising from 363 incidents), only seven were sustained—meaning 99 percent of cases were dismissed. Exoneration rates were only slightly smaller when looking at all the cases — of the total 2,232 allegations, 284 were sustained. This is partly why the Seattle PD is under a federal consent decree for retraining and oversight. You can check out some of the typically excellent Twitter coverage by Mocek from his #MayDaySea coverage.
Leftists harassing cops - fun times. Now that I know this site might as well be Kos, it's time to go forever.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
How can we trust them since /. hates PHP so much?
You mean when the police investigate their own misconduct they find there was none?
I'm shocked I tell 'ya.
And the police wonder why they're no longer treated with respect, while being people who regularly abuse their power and ignore the law. All cops need to start wearing body cameras at all times. Because it has reached the point where taking them at their word is a stupid idea.
If the police choose to ignore the law, they should be charged like the rest of us.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
On the one hand, routine dismissal of serious allegations suggests protection of corruption.
On the other hand, allegations do not imply guilt. Any criminal that dislikes being caught by the police can make such allegations.
I will reserve judgment until the evidence is available.
All this talk about the police, and how bad they are. Sure, there are some bad ones, but on the whole, I do not fear the police. It is the niggers I fear. THAT is the conversation this country needs to have. Why the niggers are completely out of control, and what needs to be done about it.
These nerds.
Two Seattle programmers were arrested on alleged drug charges, and passed away while in police custody. The SPD will investigate the incident.
1) Not only should he be fired - if only to save money on investigations, but ....
2) the idiots that did not fire him after the 10th investigation should also be fired for incompetence.
P.S. I am of course assuming that all 18 complaints weren't from a single incident or from a single person, or members of a single drug gang. But that should not be that hard to detect.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Isn't Seattle already under a "consent decree"? (That's basically when the Feds descend on a police force - ala Ferguson - because they want to clean it up.)
http://www.seattletimes.com/se...
And isn't there already a full body - with it's own web site - monitoring it?
http://www.seattlemonitor.com/
Can they expand their investigation to include other jurisdictions? This kind of information needs to be available (and compiled) for every police jurisdiction in the country. If we can do that we might get some accurate records of police actions since the government is disinclined to do so (even though they passed a law requiring it 4 or 5 years ago.)
"Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
Wonder if those two are getting harrasements and anonymous threats...
Why do dim-witted and unlawful results surprise anyone? This failure starts at the beginning with the hiring process.
Law is one thing and order quite another. My view of the cops is that they are aware that they can no longer hold the line and are in a sort of panic. What is orderly is often confusing and very subjective whereas what is legal is usually more sharply defined. Part of the problem is money. Tax payers don't like to pay taxes and as a consequence we do not require college degrees for cops. The consequence is that we end up with some pretty primitive personalities working as cops. Sloppy language results in sloppy thinking. For example police have to be instructed on how to stay safe and stay alive. But the cops on the receiving end of the training falsely translate that training into an idea that they must have absolute safety. Absolute safety is not available for any type of employment much less being a cop. That is why we are seeing cops that are a bit quick to get violent and their training amplifies the problem. For example if they shoot a suspect one time should they really be trained to keep shooting until the subject is down and not moving at all? The public is also at fault as in days gone by any person who ran for any reason was subject to being shot so very few people tried to run. Now running from cops is common and the cops do not shoot simply because a person is running and that exposes cops to a lot more risk. And these three strikes laws cause a lot of violence as well. A bad guy has nothing to lose by running if a third incident will get him life without hope of parole. Cruel and unpleasant jails also assure and create violence as resisting arrest is sort of logical if one is about to be dropped into some kind of degrading hell pit. There is plenty of guilt to go around and as much guilt falls on the tax payers as upon the criminals.
Whoops. Too late.
Look, I get that the assumption from TFA is that the 99% exoneration rate is too high, but what have we in the way of substantive evidence that this is actually so? [crickets]
Yeah, thought so, and that is a problem. It's always a case of who do you believe, the cop or the criminal, when investigating cases of corruption and brutality, and it is more than reasonable to assume that, more often than not, the criminal is full of shit. So how do we do justice to those who actually do have a valid grievance? Body cams would be a good start. They would do far more to defend good cops than catch bad ones, so let's stop dithering and make this commonplace tech a requirement.
The police have a tight group dynamic which is typical to any group who see's "live action". They look after each other which is the right thing.
The main problem here is that the officers are very focused on the dark side of society. They are often not treated well and you see how that affects more regular people when they only hear bad news and people may attack them etc, even when just for a short while. Imagine dealig with that as a career day in and day out.
The police needs to be involved with positive help as well as the chasing law breakers part. A balance must be acheived or it will become very very hard to find those few in society who not only want to be an officer but have such parity in life that they can sustain all the negative for any duration without becoming it.
You get what you put your attention on. They focus on law breakers and become it themselves. That focus has to be changed.
Don't assume all libertarians find the police beyond reproach, or support the republican party!
The Libertarians have been the far right of the Republican Party since they nominated Ron Raul as their presidential candidate. At the time of Paul's nomination he had most conservative voting record in congress since the end of WWII.
Nah, just us. http://i.imgur.com/TtcWPII.jpg
and everyone arrested claims inappropriate use of force. Unless someone goes case by case, these statistics mean nothing. Both sides are biased, that's why police body cameras and bystanders recording video are such hot topics lately.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
why does it matter to the story that they were programmers? there is nothing about programming in the summary, so it looks like a completely irrelevant detail.
Kick'em in the nuts, Kick'em in the nuts. (Chris Rock c: 2000)
It seems once people are in a position of power, the idea of proper behavior seems to evaporate.
Moving past that, why cant we have a standard Body of govt. or something to review and action on these issues?
like a national review Board.
And people wonder why the police forces of the word get so much crap.. Well the story in this case truly contributes to that notion that the very officials whom we trust for protection are really JUST NOT THAT. Perhaps a better way would be. Some are, MOST ARE NOT.. Unfortunately here is a clear example of that..
In 569 allegations of excessive or inappropriate use of force (arising from 363 incidents), only seven were sustained—meaning 99 percent of cases were dismissed.
Okay, those are some numbers. Are they good? Are they bad? What percentage of dismissals would be "good" if - as is implied - this statistic is indicative of something being wrong?
In a less rhetorical tone, how does this compare to other similar-sized forces around the country?
Exoneration rates were only slightly smaller when looking at all the cases — of the total 2,232 allegations, 284 were sustained.
Exoneration rates might be "slightly smaller" - 87% down from 99%, which isn't that slight - but if you look at it the other way, the "sustainment" rate is over 10x higher. Tricky things, numbers.
Among some of Rachner and Mocek's findings: a total of 1,028 SPD employees (including civilian employees) were investigated between 2010 and 2013. (The current number of total SPD staff is 1,820.)
Okay, sounds pretty bad. What were they investigated for? Do all the automatic procedures that get launched when someone discharges a firearm, for example, count as an investigation? What if there was a leak of information, and that one investigation initially covered 500 members of staff before quickly being whittled down to Gary in HR?
Without more context and some comparisons to other forces, I'm not really sure how much I should be tutting and shaking my head in dismay.
It's like when someone tells you that all the lego bricks in the world would cover London to a depth of six inches. At first glance, wow, that's a lot, but then I realise I really had absolutely no idea of what the number might be with which to compare the truth.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Any time there is a complaint there is an investigation. It is normal for employees to be investigated many times while working at a PD, because people complain more about police than, say, firefighters.
I think that most people understand there are a certain percentage of truly bad cops who will tamper with evidence, lie, etc. to get what they need. The thing that's new is the Internet, social media, and the ability for guys like these to collect and publish records. If a bystander hadn't taken (or published) the video of that guy in South Carolina being shot, the cop would still be working today and no one would have said a thing. It used to be extremely rare that something like this surfaced, and it often took a major news organization to do the kind of investigating and analysis.
You can't go into law enforcement without having at least some tendencies towards being a bully. I think that, plus the unlimited authority police get, plus the fact that they deal almost exclusively with "bad" people produce the police that make the headlines. I don't know how most are able to keep their bully tendencies in check when they never work with good people, plus racism and fellow officers reinforcing bad behavior probably have an effect over time as well. The end product of that is the stereotypical "bully with a badge" that gets the most media attention.
In the age when anyone can post video of bad police behavior, the only answer is to have tamper proof cameras on police every time they interact with the public. It's too easy for people to make false claims, and it used to be too easy for the police to sweep things under the rug.
are out in force. The buried a valid complaint about the Republican/Comcast political machine that runs Seattle. They refuse to allow us to have Internet access. They keep it from us. I access nearly a hundred times faster in rural Georgia seventeen years ago than I now have in Seattle. They want to keep us in the dark and feed us shit. That is why they're so against the Internet.
The only evidence uncovered is that the PD has a robust system for reporting and investigating claims.
That's not quite true - the evidence suggests only that they have a robust system for reporting and recording claims. I've not seen any evidence to suggest that they robustly investigate them and the OP claims that there is evidence of them using unnecessary force and racist language without repercussion which, if substantiated, would be clear evidence of very poor investigation.
I completely agree that having a large fraction of claims refused is not evidence that the system is not working. It does suggest that the system should be investigated to understand why there are such a lot of dismissed complaints because either cops are having to endure a lot of frivolous discipline cases or they are getting away with serious misconduct. Either possibility is bad but the statistics provided do not distinguish between the two cases.
Discharge your weapon, it's investigated. Doesn't matter if you were shot 12 times before you fired a single round.
I have no doubt a lot of allegations they get are vexatious. However they are likely obligated to investigate just about all of them. So in one sense it is good that so many investigations have taken place (i.e. they are following rules/guidelines).
However still it does make you wonder with just the numbers involved.
I know for things like FOI there are exemptions for vexatious requests, just as I am sure there probably is for allegations. However I know to meet those requirements the bar is so high as to it is almost never exceeded, so you are required to go through the motions even if you know it is something pretty dumb.
Even if the particular allegation was that a the indicated officer identified themselves as Mr. Oinkerton, and proceeded to beat me without provocation using a bag of donuts, they would probably have to have an official investigation, even if everyone knows it is BS.
And in unrelated news, 2 local programmers were swatted in a dawn raid that saw all their computers confiscated and accidentally broken. The two young men are being held indefinitely until the police are certain they can be cleared of all charges.
people to hire.... in order to get them off their backs.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/04/cops-hire-pesky-programmer-who-bugged-seattle-for-more-transparency/
The guy that works in the local corner store also has a non-zero probability of getting shot when he goes to work in the morning. Yes, it's terrible when bad things happen to cops, but it doesn't mean that we should ignore that a not insignificant number of bad things are committed by cops. Keep in mind that 1.4% is just reported incidents, and that there are probably plenty of "better keep quiet or you'll get a worse beating" situations out there.
I think the police must and can change. The bullying can be kept to a minimum, through screening and training. The training also needs to change.
One problem is higher up. It's not just the police, it's local governments. For example, a few weeks ago, I got a letter about my grass being too high. In a neighboring city, the bureaucrats actually escalated an unmown lawn into jail time! They had kept a dossier of lawn care violations dating back nearly 20 years! Wow, welcome to East Germany. I had mowed 2 weeks before, but it had rained a lot recently and the city's own medians were not in compliance. But none of that mattered. The tone of the letter is what I find most troubling. It was insulting, threatening, demeaning, and belittling all in one. There was no due process, the property was simply declared in violation. I had no idea what the height limit was until the letter informed me that it was 12 inches, and only a vague notion that there probably was a city ordinance about it. The letter informed me that the city could fine me up to $2000 per day that the property was in violation, If I don't pay, they can file a lien and may sue me. Also, it seems I'm on probation for a year, as the letter also said I would not receive another warning for 12 months, they'd just start the punishment the next time the property was found in violation. Pretty heavy handed for a little grass. I doubt whether they can really do all the terrible things they say, and it may be in part a scare tactic. They also stated in the letter that the purpose is "that the property be maintained in an attractive and pleasant manner free of all nuisances. Premises that become unattractive because of of high vegetation or other nuisance invite deterioration, vandalism and infestation and undermine the integrity of the neighborhoods and commercial areas where they exist." That's damned insulting, lecturing me about that. I have done much to clean the property up. It had a lot of trash scattered around before I moved in, and I have disposed of it all. Nor do I agree with their premise that high vegetation is a nuisance, or that over 12 inches is "high". So, according to that, my grandparents, who were farmers and good people, are public nuisances because they never mowed their yard? They had 4 foot high grass, and a vegetable garden. As a citizen with a clean record, I deserve better treatment than that.
Finally, the letter concluded with a list of lawn mowing services I could employ, with a disclaimer that they do not endorse any of them. Yeah, right! That list struck me as highly improper. So, the city is being run as a racket for lawn care profiteering? With a city being run like that, is it any wonder that their cops aren't totally fair either? What I would like to see is the people rise up against such petty racketeering. Citizens who want to keep our hard won rights should descend upon the city of Grand Prairie Texas for jailing a man for not mowing enough, and set them straight. No escalation of civil violations into criminal ones. No de facto debtor prisons. Sadly, I have not heard that anything further is being done in this case. Looks like the episode is going to be forgotten, and Mr. Yoes will not receive any apology or compensation. Maybe the media attention they got is enough to scare the bureaucrats from pulling that one again.
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If you want to live as a citizen in a democracy, you have to hold officials responsible. When the police decide that they are above the law, it is up to us to show them that the law applies to everyone.
On the other hand, if you want to be a peon in a police state, just go ahead and support the status quo. Let the TSA steal you stuff when you fly. Let the NSA put you on a watch list based on a mass surveillance algorithm that no one will ever review. Or get on a list by posting something on Slashdot. It's your choice.
Why is Snark Required?
The reason SPD has even has all these internal reviews is because they have been cleaning house and act. There was a Justice department review board in place over the past few years and an interim chief for over site.
The city council and mayor along with department heads have been actively engaged over the past 3 years improving community policing, revising use of force, and have a program for officer body cameras way ahead any of the black lives matter incidents.
Finally, all the programmers have done is collected data that the departement documented for itself. If the department felt there was no need for investigations that data would not exist. Hardly the "closest thing to a review board. Hyperbole and social justice warriorism?
It seems like the local newspapers should be interested in this document stash: it seems like a good source of data for a bit of investigative journalism and could be turned into quite q few interesting articles. So they should team up with these two programmers to help parse through the data, just like journalists teamed together to analyze the Snowden documents.
It also seems like they need a way to make this data more searchable and organized which is again a problem that journalists faced many times (Snowden, Luxleaks, Swissleaks, Sony). So if there's not some open-source code for organising such data already there should be by now. Anyway contacting people involved with one of these older data stashes could help figure out how to organize this one and make the most of it.
why wouldn't their cameras be live streaming back to the stationhouse constantly?
if a pigs camera stops transmitting, the sgt at the stationhouse calls that officer back to get his equipment fixed.