Feds, Seattle agree to police reforms

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Updated 48m ago

SEATTLE (AP) – Seattle officials agreed to an independent monitor and court oversight of the city's police department as part of an agreement announced Friday with the Justice Department following a damning report that found officers routinely used excessive force.

City and federal negotiators were involved in tense talks over the scope of a deal for months, and Justice Department lawyers had threatened to sue the city if a deal was not reached by July 31.

"It's no secret there were a few bumps in the road to get here," Mayor Mike McGinn said. "We do have a lot of work in front of us."

The Justice Department launched its civil rights investigation early last year after the fatal shooting of a homeless, Native American woodcarver and other incidents involving force used against minority suspects.

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Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-07-27/seattle-police-doj/56546062/1

[valerief]

1. You mean cops might not be able to tase whomever they want?

What about their "freedoms"?

[PSPS]

2. The Seattle PD has become quite corrupt and rogue over the past 20 years.

And its pace of deterioration has really accelerated recently.

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. I don't usually have nice things to say about the DOJ, but...

...this is the kind of thing it should be doing. They just entered into some sort of consent decree with the New Orleans PD, too, another notoriously corrupt and vicious law enforcement organization.