City Attorney’s Role in Police Accountability

Summary

The City Attorney is in effect the City’s legal counsel. Their role and responsibilities are to advise the City authorities and officers in all legal matters pertaining to the business of the City and shall approve all ordinances as to form. This authority would include civil claims against the City, including those against the Seattle Police Department (SPD).

Key to the City Attorney’s responsibilities is their prosecutorial discretion, which means the ability to decide when to prosecute. In addition to prosecutorial discretion, the City Attorney can choose to pursue crimes of elected government officials when they break City law. The City Attorney must also stay abreast of all changes to state and federal laws to ensure policy set by City officials are in compliance in those jurisdictions. For example, this includes the recent passage of a variety of police reform/accountability laws at the state level. One other critical responsibility is to review city contracts to ensure the City’s legal interests are not compromised. This would include the new Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) contract that is still to be negotiated.

Importance

One approach to achieving greater public safety is to take crimes of poverty, (e.g., stealing a sandwich or other small items that individuals steal out of desperation and for survival) and substance use disorder out of the criminal legal system and instead address their root causes by investing in housing, mental health, and substance use disorder treatment. While the City Attorney does not necessarily have a role in alternate investment, they can decide not to prosecute these misdemeanors.

This past summer, Mayor Durkan’s (and other city officials’) text messages went “missing” at exactly the time period where SPD was responding violently to the 2020 summer protests. The City Attorney would decide whether or not to prosecute and hold elected officials accountable. The City Attorney could also choose to pursue crimes such as wage theft, which would, in turn, serve in part to address poverty.

Whoever is elected City Attorney will also play a role in the SPOG contract negotiations that will likely continue into 2022.

 

Acronyms

SPD - Seattle Police Department

SPOG - Seattle Police Officers Guild