Seattle Asks Court to End 13-Year Federal Oversight of Police

The City of Seattle asked a federal judge on Tuesday to terminate the 2012 consent decree that has kept the Seattle Police Department under Justice Department oversight for more than 13 years. In motions filed in U.S. District Court, officials argued that the department has met all reform requirements and that serious uses of force are now “exceedingly rare.” Mayor Bruce Harrell said analyses from 2024 show force was used in just 0.17% of all dispatches, with only 1.33% of 8,305 crisis incidents involving any force. The city cited new crowd-management rules, a civilian-led accountability system and a crisis-response unit as evidence that the pattern of unconstitutional policing identified by federal investigators in 2011 has been corrected. Judge James L. Robart, who has overseen the decree, will decide whether to end federal supervision after a hearing that has yet to be scheduled. City officials emphasized that local oversight mechanisms created during the decree—such as the Community Police Commission, Office of Police Accountability and Office of Inspector General—will remain in place.