This year's Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we learn how terribly the Seattle Police handles domestic violence calls
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Which makes it both ironic and frustrating to learn how poorly Seattle Police officers handle domestic violence incidents.
According to one investigative report by the Office of Police Accountability (OPA), in September of last year, two Seattle police officers responded to a “Priority 1” domestic violence 911 call — the highest priority — by:
Staying at their starting location for five minutes;
Passing the incident location to go to the bathroom;
Arriving at the scene 21 minutes after being dispatched; and
Leaving the scene after less than 2 minutes without contacting the victim or even exiting their vehicle, deciding it would be “difficult” to enter the apartment building, and going to eat at a restaurant.
The officers then “cleared” the call as a “suspicious circumstance” and made it appear they had rendered assistance — which the OPA investigation found “they did not do in any meaningful way.”
In another incident, in November of last year, a woman called 911 about a maintenance worker trespassing in her home without permission. Despite assurances by dispatch that an officer would respond, none showed. The assigned officer “cleared” the call about an hour afterward by marking it a “civil issue” — never having responded to the call or talking to the victims. The officer claimed that “sergeants and lieutenants cleared calls the same way” and that this process was their “new normal.”
In third case still under investigation by the OPA, two officers apparently sat at Starbucks for 40 minutes while a domestic violence suspect attempted to enter a victim’s house.
Washington law takes extremely seriously the dangers of domestic violence. Since 1979, our laws have explicitly recognized it as a serious crime against society — one that was historically overlooked by “previous societal attitudes.” As stated in RCW 10.99.010, the preamble to our domestic violence laws:
The purpose of this chapter is to recognize the importance of domestic violence as a serious crime against society and to assure the victim of domestic violence the maximum protection from abuse which the law and those who enforce the law can provide. The legislature finds that the existing criminal statutes are adequate to provide protection for victims of domestic violence. However, previous societal attitudes have been reflected in policies and practices of law enforcement agencies and prosecutors which have resulted in differing treatment of crimes occurring between cohabitants and of the same crimes occurring between strangers. Only recently has public perception of the serious consequences of domestic violence to society and to the victims led to the recognition of the necessity for early intervention by law enforcement agencies. It is the intent of the legislature that the official response to cases of domestic violence shall stress the enforcement of the laws to protect the victim and shall communicate the attitude that violent behavior is not excused or tolerated. Furthermore, it is the intent of the legislature that criminal laws be enforced without regard to whether the persons involved are or were married, cohabiting, or involved in a relationship.
This is why over 40 years ago, Washington made significant changes to our domestic violence laws intended to counteract these systemic historical inadequacies. And why these continued failures by the Seattle Police are so inexcusable.
And the SPD is hardly unique. Which is why last month we filed a lawsuit against the King County Sheriff’s Office alleging that its improper handling of a domestic violence incident led to the death of the victim, Karin Riebe. Because when law enforcement fails to do its job, it should be held accountable.
Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash