Members Present: Douglas Wagoner, Joseph Seia, Rev. Harriet Walden, Rev. Aaron Williams, Suzette Dickerson, La Rond Baker, Prachi Dave, Scott Bachler, Colleen Echohawk, Erin Goodman, Esther Lucero, Mark Mullens, Alina Santillan.

Virtual Meeting Highlights:
They were all attentive and courteous to one another. After the usual land acknowledgment, attendance was taken and there was a quorum. The agenda for the meeting was accepted, and the minutes of the previous
meeting was as well.

Public Comment:
There was no public input, although, once again, Commissioners were urged to contact at least one other member of their communities to gain their points of view.

Action Items
We were told that several things are in process, but there was nothing currently to report.

DOJ/Monitor/City Council/Mayor Updates
- The DOJ had no updates but their representative asked the Commissioners to reach out to her if they wanted to.
- The Monitor had no report.
- A representative from CM Herbold’s Office noted that there would be a Budget Meeting this morning at 9:30 and a meeting on the SPD Budget tomorrow morning.
- A staff member from the Mayor’s Office reported that next week they hope to provide a deeper look at the Budget, and he noted that the Mayor was requesting $100,000,000 for BIPOC in the next Budget.

Co-Chair Updates
There were no co-chair updates.

Committee Updates
Governance Committee 
Said that Bylaws would be presented on October 9th. The Executive Director search is ongoing with
Commissioners meeting with the search firm.

Community Engagement Committee 
Reported that they were working on a few projects.

Defund Work Group
Esther Lucero led the discussion. She said they needed to move the discussion now to the broader Commission so we have the whole Commission behind their report. She stated that they have heard the DeCrim group, and the question is do we want to support their recommendations. They propose more civilian investigators on OPA, so their is a
question as to the salaries of these civilians. To show respect for them, they need to be treated like regular City Employees. We need to come up with our recommendations in the next two weeks.

Prachi Dave agreed with DeCrim, and thought there should be as much consensus on the Commission as possible as this would allow the CPC to help the broader community.

Erin Goodman felt that there were good ideas raised, but she was concerned about how their recommendations affect the entire community. Won’t there be unintended consequences? While some of their ideas sound good, we need to think about how they will affect the whole City. How to balance this Community’s needs with the entire City. How will Public Safety be affected in this large City?

Esther Lucero responded: Who will assume the risk for Public Safety as a whole? Can we tailor a response for all the communities? Since no one else was commenting, Esther started calling on Commissioners for comments.

Joseph Seia had no comment right now.

Rev. Walden had some of the same concerns as Erin, and she felt that the community people were not behind it. Crime is expanding in the Central District and that is of great concern to the community.

Alina Santillan said he agreed with Prachi, and that when he says “community” he thinks of those people who are most impacted by negative policing. He needed to think about this further.

Nick Christian mentioned that DeCrim had expanded their proposal.

Rev. Walden said that she would look at their recommendations. There is real crime and shootings during the daytime that has her very concerned. Who will assume responsibility for these problems in the interim?

Colleen Echohawk: Excited to talk about this. Rev. Walden regarding crime right now, the SPD is not doing us favors with crime. SPD was wonderful for us last week. We haven't found solutions downtown. Supportive of Decriminalize Seattle. Civilians should be on OPA to help their work. Gave an example of people being traumatized by being contacted by police during an OPA investigation. 

Esther Lucero: We could promote pilot effotts for human trafficking, etc. Funding community leaders to lead investigative efforts. 

Rev. Walden: We already have community people on the OPA. You want additional ones?

Commissioners responded yes, they wanted more and to explore new ways to investigate.

Douglas Wagoner: We need to usher this moment forward. Reducing use of force in mental health situations, referencing CM Lewis. We should align ourselves with Decriminalize Seattle.

Esther Lucero responded: 911 calls being diverted as appropriate to social workers. We need to make recommendations about budget but also on accountability.

La Rond Baker: We have an incredible opportunity to rethink policing or police accountability. There needs to be a  change and how SPD interacts with the community, how low-income communities are treated through bad policing. We need to take strong stances to protect them. Other communities are already protected. We should support Decriminalize Seattle. Some issues may need to be revisited. Increasing crimes show the present system is not keeping us safe. 

Suzette Dickerson: Agrees with Erin regarding safety elements we need to be cognizant of taking work away from some organizations or changing structures that are already there. Should we enhance those services with more community input instead of starting from scratch. Would like to continue this conversation next week.

Legislative Agenda Committee
La Rond Baker: Sent a letter to OIR. Need to determine what the top priorities will be that CPC submits to the legislature.

Next week's agenda to include more discussions on defunding, legislative agenda, report from Mayor's Office, and an update from OPA.

 Virtual Meeting Highlights:
There were 42+ participants in the meeting - including commissioners and staff.  As far as the League Observer could tell only commissioners and staff spoke, and there was no formal time for public comment. Everyone was respectful, allowed to speak and express diverse opinions, etc.

DOJ, Monitor, City Council, Mayor Updates 
DOJ:  No update.

Monitor:  No update

Council: Starting to address 2021 budget, having received the Mayor’s proposed budget on 9/29/20.  SCC Budget Committee meeting at 9:30 AM on 9/30/20 and on 10/1/20 another SCC budget hearing will focus on the SPD budget.

Mayor’s Office:  CPC will receive a presentation from the Mayor's Office on the budget at the 10/7/20 meeting. Mayor's Office representative noted there is an op-ed by Mayor Durkan regarding her $100 million plan for BIPOC Communities in the South Seattle Herald (9/25/20).
 
Committee Updates
Governance Committee: Erin Goodman (SODO Business Improvement Area) reported that committee has worked with the City’s contract specialists and will be doing a Request for Proposal. Also a small group met with a search firm regarding an executive director for the CPC.
 
Community Outreach: Commissioner said he will update the CPC soon.
 
Defund Workgroup
The Commissioner representative from the Defund Workgroup Esther Lucero (Seattle Indian Health Board) said that the work group was  ready for input from the broader Commission and will be bringing specific recommendations, including those from Decriminalize Seattle (DS) to the committee for consideration. For instance, DS  is recommending that more civilian investigators be added to the OPA and that their pay be commensurate with other city employees.
 
It was noted that the CPC needed an updated presentation from DS. Esther said the DS had  refined their initial blueprint and that the CPC should revisit. The League Observer believed that staff for the CPC will be sending the updated DS recommendations so that people can be thinking about it.
 
Esther Lucero asked for peoples’ thoughts in general about supporting the recommendations from DS, or if the CPC should have their own recommendations for defunding. Since no one responded Esther called on people to share their views.
  
Prachi Dave (Senior Attorney at the Public Defender) supports DS and suggests that the commission try to develop a consensus around which of the recommendations the commission will support. She noted that DS represents the community.
 
Erin Goodman (SODO Business Improvement Area) stated  that DS has raised important ideas but she is concerned about the lack of detail. She is OK moving forward on the themes, but not the detail and is concerned about unintended consequences and the about the delivery of public safety services for the whole community.  She suggested  the plan needs to address the public safety needs for a major American city.
 
Alina Santillan(Seattle Center Cohort) agreed with Prachi. He added that when he thinks about community, he centers on the issues faced by the community of people most impacted by policing and figures that If those issues are addressed, the rest of the community will also be served.
 
Reverend Walden (reverend and Co-Chair of the CPC) stated that she had some of the same concerns as Erin. She said that the community is not all on board. Crime is escalating in Seattle, shootings and crime are up. She stated that these are real issues. We are all here representing different aspects of the community.  

Esther Lucero summarized Reverend Walden’s comments as 1) we should all think more about it and 2) we need a stop gap measure to ensure public safety as changes are implemented.
 
Colleen Echohawk (Executive Director of the Chief Seattle Club) said that we need to think about history and where we want to go.  She noted that she worked for years with the Downtown Seattle Association looking at issues of safety and they never found satisfactory solutions. She suggested that solutions need to evolve and as systemic racism is addressed.
 
Douglas Wagoner (Communications Lead at the Office of Health and Safe Communities in the Washington State Department of Health) suggested that the CPC has an opportunity to reduce use of force and that the CPC should do whatever it takes to usher it forward. The group should look at the big picture and align themselves with DS.  Don’t stand in the way of reform, be partners in the transformation and highlight accountability measures not related to budget.
 
Another speaker (not identified by our Observer) suggested that non-criminal calls be handled by a pool of capable providers able to respond to people in a  behavioral health crisis and that funds be identified to adequately pay this pool.
 
La Rond Baker (King County Department of Public Defense) noted that the current situation presents an incredible opportunity. She suggested that the Commission needs to focus on the most impacted communities - namely communities of color and those unhoused - those that need to be protected because the other communities are well taken care of. She suggested that the Commission go through the recommendations at DS and comment on each.  La Rond also noted that the current approach is not working, crime has increased and again we need to align with the communities most impacted. She also suggested that the CPC  look at other models.
 
Suzette Dickerson  (WSCCCE AFSCME Council 2) agreed with Erin.. She suggested that the Commission look at where the work is decreased and also looked at enhancing services.
 
Officer Mark Mullins (Seattle Police Department) asked what training a civilian accountability investigator would undergo before serving as a civilian in the Office of Police Accountability.
 
The issue of alignment with DS will be discussed further next week. Esther Lucero suggested that commission members email their thoughts/ recommendations to her if they didn’t get to provide them during the meeting.
 
Legislative Committee
​Met last Friday and distilled recommendations and sent them on to OIR on 9/25/20. Committee will meet again to continue  looking at top priorities and whether or not the CPC should be coordinating with existing groups or develop their own recommendations.
 
Meeting concluded at 10:00, 30 minutes earlier than the normal meeting. Co-Chair Reverend Aaron Williams stated that next week the meeting would be longer.

Members Present: Douglas Wagoner, Joseph Seia, Rev. Harriet Walden, Rev. Aaron Williams, Suzette Dickerson, La Rond Baker, Prachi Dave, Scott Bachler, Emma Catague, Erin Goodman, Esther Lucero, Natasha Moore, Mark Mullens.

Public Comment
There was no public input, but there was a call for the Commissioners to each reach out to at least one member of the community to add their voices to the discussion of the action items of police accountability and funding.

Virtual Meeting Highlights
All Commissioners were all attentive and prepared, as well as courteous to each other. After the Land Acknowledgement, attendance was called, and there was a quorum. The agenda was approved and the minutes of the previous meeting were accepted.

Action Items
There were no action items from 9/16 to be dealt with.

DOJ/Monitor/City Council/Mayor Updates
There were no updates from the Department of Justice.

The Monitor’s representative Ron Ward repeated that the new Monitoring team was getting up to speed.

The spokesman from the City Council, Newell Aldrich, shared that the Budget Committee would be considering the Mayor’s budgets proposal and then work on it for the next two months, beginning September 30th.

A representative from the Mayor’s Office said that the Mayor’s Budget Speech would be delivered next Tuesday, September 29th. Then, her office would be working with the Council to reach an agreement on the Budget.

Co-Chair Updates
Prachi Dave repeated again that the search firm helping to select the new Executive Director of the CPC is asking for Commissioners to volunteer to meet in small meetings, along with the staff, to help the search firm understand the needs of the Commission.

Committee Updates
Governance Committee
Erin Goodman of the Governance Committee said the work is continuing with the Mayor’s Office to edit the Bylaws of the CPC. They need to redraw the strategic plan for the Commission.

Community Engagement Committee
Joseph Seia: They are talking about working to increase community involvement in the CPC regarding Police Accountability. They want to hear more voices.

Updates from Office of Police Accountability (OPA)
The bulk of the remaining time was spent on updates from the OPA. 

Lisa Judge, who leads the Office of the Inspector General, talked about a sentinel update, creating review processes with the community at the table. She said she has been discussing these issues with the CPC since she got here, and that we have got to set up a process to get at the systemic roots of the actions that lead to problems. Ms. Judge referenced the Airline Industry and Health Care Systems: when there are failures, when things go wrong, you need to look at the whole system and how the failure
evolves.

They have met with consultants of the SPD as well as attorneys Bessie Scott and Isaac Ruiz. We need to work with the consultants on an Engagement Plan, and get all the stakeholders involved, the OIG, CPC, SPD, ACLU. We need to have them look to see which experts need to be consulted: Academics, other people with expertise. And we need to decide which events will be the focus of this process.

Rev. Walden: Referenced attending a Zoom meeting and felt that it was a great start. She asked if the pepper spray on May 30th downtown when a child was affected would be part of it.

Ms. Judge said that they re plotting a timeline of all the incidents, chunks of incidents,
and have folks talk to the community about what needs review and what need deep
dives.

Esther Lucero asked about protecting our children during the protests. When are we going to get beyond reviews and start flagging issues that need immediate response.

Ms. Judge responded: The SPD is trying to do this. We need to flag things; we need the big issues for major things to be changed. Commanders who are there need to act.

Esther Lucero: How we can add pressure?

Ms. Judge responded: Offer a recommendation to sit down with the SPD Chief of Police and ask why nothing is changing, when are you going to act? Ms. Judge said we have the Consent Decree regarding the use of force and we have a new Monitor and the CPC to all use pressure for change.

Andrew Myerberg (OPA) reported on the case that came out on Friday, the first of the five protest cases and the highest profile one where the child was pepper sprayed and an officer was accused of having his knee on someone’s neck. The decisions of the OPA was that the complaints were not sustained. The complete case file is being provided in full to the CPC, but how the child turned out to be involved was that there was a line that the police drew and asked people to move back, a person grabbed a police baton, and she was pepper sprayed, Some of the pepper spray sprayed off her helmet and that affected a father and child who were standing behind her, not visible on the video. Was it reasonable to use it on the woman? Yes. It was an impossible situation because it was not a controlled situation. He said, “I am not sure what other tools could have been used.”

Brandy Grant: Why use it when only one person was pushing through?

Joseph Seia: He found the decision offensive and was trying to control his emotions. “How did you come to this decision without seeing how problematic that case is?”

Prachi Dave: Appreciated that Myerberg was your joining them today. But putting heavily riot geared police versus people is not a proportionate response. You need to review that mindset. Your finding was based on current policies and those should be changed.

Andrew Myerberg said that those policies have been changed, that pepper spray would now not be used in such a situation.

Esther Lucero: We need to advance these efforts to change policies

Andrew Myerberg asked: Should OPA be able to make mandatory policies? Right now, we cannot. We need to have more teeth.”

Scott Bachler: There is no magic wand for crowd control. It sounds as though you
are saying that police should not be at the protests. Remove police from the
mix? Anything short of this will bring about issues like this! Are you saying “Let’s not
police protests?”

Joseph Seia: It isn’t a matter of either/or.

Scott Bachler: Seattle isn’t unique in using pepper spray, blast balls, flash bangs. What can we do? Saying that cops shouldn’t be doing bad things? They don’t want to! What should the officers have done to handle that specific event?

Rev. Walden: Every year on May Day, people come to Seattle and tear up everything and no arrests are made. But BLM is going on and on. You say the SPD hasn't been trained in the 2015-16 recommendations. Black people didn't do the violence. What is the world doing on crowd management? People brought children to see democracy in action.

Rev. Williams: Police officers are public servants. They are not warriors. We are all in this together. Both sides have to say the other is a human being. Police officers are in a position of power, and have weapons. SPD is part of the community.

Defund Work Group
Esther Lucero and Shayleen Morris presented. Esther thanked Rev. Williams for his comments. We have to work aggressively to solve these problems. We wanted to get into the implementation of true engagement in the Defund Committee. They needed more of the Commissioners to bring forward members of the public for their responses to recommendations. 

Brandy Grant: Suggested that Commissioners add one more name to the list so they can see what the community thinks, for broader engagement. They heard from Decriminalize Seattle and SPD, now need more voices.

Suzette Dickerson: Sometimes we lose sight that the government is part of the community as well. There is the potential to harm forces doing good work. We don't realize the interrelations of service delivery.

Esther Lucero: Are our connections to King County so strong that we can't use local groups? She referred to 18 people in the encampment near her building who were eligible for services, but they had no idea. Need to have joint efforts to solve community problems.

Scott Bachler: Esther did a good job of raising these issues. He discussed decriminalizing misdemeanors as suggested by Decriminalize Seattle and King County Equity Now. Are we really not going to criminalize walking into a store and taking something? What would happen when a person calls 911? 

Suzette Dickerson: There are multiple victims. Those who are committing crimes are part of the community?

Nick Christian: OPA report on the resolution 31962 Response to the Decriminalize blueprint:

• Reduce SPD funds by $40 million
• Privatize 911
• Move parking enforcement to the Dept. of Transportation
• Prioritize 911 calls
• Address bias in department through personnel cuts and layoffs of officers with OPA complaints
• Move Office of Emergency Management out of SPD

Austin Miller (Mayor's Office): We are interested in working with the community for the Mayor's proposal.

Esther Lucero asked what that timeline is.

Joseph Seia: I would like to present that to the community group I met with.

Esther Lucero: Asked every Commissioner to add one more name to the conversation.

Legislative Agenda Committee
Shayleen Morris and Jesse Franz discussed what might be happening at the state level legislatively. Colleen not there so will report more. Draft list of priorities, noting CPC is an independent agency:

• Don't let police contracts remove accountability
• Remove arbitration as a route of appeal
• Repair Washington's Decertification System for officers found to have committed misconduct
• Institute truly independent investigations (I-940)
• Ban tear gas in Washington State, not to be used under any circumstances
• End qualified immunity
• Strengthen requirements for officers to intervene when they witness misconduct (citing Denver and New Orleans models)

Esther Lucero: We are instituting empathy. 

Vote: 11 aye, 1 nay (Mark Mullens, who noted he tried to speak before the vote, but could not connect)

Agenda Next Week

• Closed cases from OPA
• Response to OPA pepper-spray decision

 Virtual Meeting Highlights
There were 35+ participants in the meeting, including commissioners and staff.  It seemed to the League Observer that only commissioners and staff spoke and there was no formal time for public comment. One attendee, Howard Gale who is a Seattle police accountability activist entered stinging chat messages critical of the CPC. 

This week there were 2 guests: Councilmember Andrew Lewis and Andrew Myberg from the Office of Police Accountability. Everyone was respectful, allowed to speak and express diverse opinions, etc. It was a very substantive and lively meeting.
 
DOJ/Monitor/Council/Mayor Updates
None.

Committee Updates
Governance Committee: None 
 
Demonstration/Defund Work Group
With five minutes left in the meeting the demonstration management committee began discussion of what was to be a lengthy discussion about the need to bring community voices to the table, but they need to make specific recommendations. The Commission wants to strengthen relations with the community and mend relationships where they need to be mended. They may have an extended meeting on Friday. They are under a tight timeline.
 
Legislative Agenda and Police Accountability Work Group
The Legislative Committee identified and reported on the top 4 CPC legislative priorities for the 2021 session:

1. Collective bargaining
2. De-escalation and I-940
3. Qualified immunity
4. Decertification

Staff noted that they are still waiting to hear whether or not the CPC will be able to have their own independent legislative agenda to lobby as the commission seems fit. They do need to get value statements to the Office of Intergovernmental Relations by the week of 9/21/20. The Legislative Committee is holding a special meeting on Friday, 9/18, to craft value statements. Staff asked for people to sign up to participate. At one point someone suggested they send the invite to all the commissioners, but staff pointed out if they have a majority of commissioners then they have to make it public. A decision was made not to send a blanket invite.
 
Discussion with CM Andrew Lewis about Policing Alternatives
Seattle City Councilmember Andrew Lewis joined the meeting to discuss the proposed Public Health-Informed 911 Response Service. He shared that the City is working on restructuring the 911 response system knowing it’s a matter of interest for the commission and community. He discussed several established models:

1. The CAHOOTS program in Eugene, Oregon. In this model a van with behavioral health specialists serve as first responders in low acuity situations involving behavioral health issues or issues that are result of extreme poverty. They do not respond to crimes. He noted that the CAHOOTS Program is attached to a clinic and has a supportive system of shelter and long-term services due to a history of backend investments in Eugene.  He noted that Seattle has outreach programs but a dearth of long-term, back end services, like supportive housing. One commissioner also noted that Eugene has a fairly homogeneous population unlike Seattle. Lewis said that the model has been implemented successfully in bigger cities such as Denver and Oakland.
2. Lewis also described a pilot, similar to the cahoots model, that he is sponsoring within the Seattle Fire Department. Currently, there is one vehicle available during business hours and service is confined to Pioneer Square. He secured an additional $50,000 to expand it this summer and plans on extending the service to 24 hours.
3. Lewis also talked about changes needed in the 911 dispatch system and has met with the Dispatchers Guild whose members are ready to have an alternative to only dispatching police . If dispatch operated independently from the police, calls could be screened and police sent only when needed.
4. Finally, Lewis mentioned the Mobile Crisis Team as the City’s best attempt at intervening in crises. The Mobile Crisis Team is operated through a contract with Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) which employs five mental health professionals Who intervene with the police. Currently the mobile crisis team is involved only if the police request their involvement. He suggested that could change. 

This led to comments by one commissioner concerned that the City too often approaches these inner-city problems regionally in conjunction with King County. Also she challenged the City to reach out and build a more comprehensive network  of provide outside of the DESC to more fully address the varied needs of the population. This Commissioner voiced concerns about continued involvement of police in crisis situations.

CM Lewis noted that the CAHOOTS program was a police abolitionist program. In closing Lewis said we need to have a plan for building infrastructure, and we need a cultural shift. People will have to learn to stop calling police when it’s not appropriate. He mentioned the Third Door Coalition which is focused on scaling up mental health services in the region and legislation he is promoting that would change building requirements an save up to $70,000 per unit of housing.
 
Discussion with Andrew Myberg about Shootings
The Commission also heard from Andrew Myberg from the Office of Police Accountability. He was there to talk about the status of investigations of two officer-involved shootings of victims Shaun Fuhr and Terry Caver. They reviewed what’s happening with the 18,000 complaints made between May and September, 2020 regarding SPD’s action/behavior toward protesters.
 
OPA is investigating the Caver shooting, going through the process. Myberg said it appears the three officers failed to deescalate before use of deadly force. Taser was used but was ineffective. Mr. Caver apparently had a knife. This led to an impassioned plea by one of the Commission members to Andrew all that he can to address the killing of people who have knives. Officer Mullins chimed in and said that knives can be deadly weapons and that police deescalate situations involving knives all the time, but the public doesn’t hear about those instances.   As an aside, Officer Mullins  later said that he wanted to be clear that he considers the police  shootings of people with knives as very serious.

In the Fuhr case, the League Observer believed the Commission was waiting for a complaint to be made. They don’t investigate and unless a complaint is made about officer behavior.  One commissioner thought that there should be a policy change and that all officer-involved shootings should be investigated. Myberg reminded the CPC that they have access to all closed cases and that every 30 days OPA will provide those cases for review to the CPC. One of the Co-chairs said that the CPC will establish a policy of reviewing and auditing cases, noting that accountability expectations  pertain to the CPC commission as well as their partners.

Regarding the 18,000 complaints made against SPD, Myberg said that 14,000 of them were related to the pepper spraying of a child.  They further narrowed the other 4,000 to 100 unique conduct allegations.  They’ve been looking at 100 cases and on Friday, September 18, they will release six reviews to the public. ​

 Members Present: Douglas Wagoner, Joseph Seia, Rev. Harriet Walden, Rev. Aaron Williams, Suzette Dickerson, LaRond Baker, Prachi Dave, Emma Catague, Colleen Echohawk, Erin Goodman, Esther Lucero, Mark Mullens, Alina Santinan.

Virtual Meeting Highlights
Everyone was attentive and well prepared. They were always courteous. After the  land acknowledgment, there were the motions to approve the agenda and the minutes from9/2/2020. Both of the motions were passed.

Action Items
There were no action items to review

DOJ/Monitor/City Council/Mayor Updates
There were no Department of Justice updates.

Mr. Ron Ward of the Monitor’s Office appeared to report on the new Monitor who was named after the previous Monitor, Merrick Bobb, resigned. He is Antonio Oftelie, a Harvard Professor and tech innovator. Monisha Harrell, formerly a Commission on the CPC board, was appointed the Deputy Monitor. The new board of the Monitor’s Office includes Matthew Barge and Ron Ward, who was reappointed.

From the Seattle City Council’s Office Newell Aldrich reported that they have heard about the issues of crowd control and the use of weapons. They are due to come up with their proposals which are due on October 3rd. (See also CM Andrew Lewis' update below.)

Mayor’s Office had no updates.

Co-Chair Updates
Monisha Harrell was thanked for her work with the Commission. Brandy Grant, the interim Executive Director, asked that the new Monitor and Deputy meet with the Community Police Commission.

Committee Updates
Governance Committee
Erin Goodman, of the Governance Committee, said that they were looking at the bylaws to be reviewed by the Mayor’s Office. The firm helping in the search for the new Executive Director has reached out to the Commissions to join in interviews of a new Director. Several Commissioners volunteered for the small group interviews: Prachi Dave, Rev. Walden, Suzette Dickerson, Colleen Echohawk, Douglas Wagoner, Esther Lucero, Rev. Williams and La Rond Baker.

Demonstrations Management
Asked to go later because they had such a lengthy report: Esther Lucero and Shayleen Morris of the Defund Workgroup were those who could bring the Commission up to date. (As it turned out, the meeting ran much longer than expected, as so they reported very briefly at the very end.)

Legislative Agenda 
Colleen Echohawk thanked Shayleen Morris for her work in crafting what their report will look like. Legislative group needs to get their drafts to the Commission regarding: Collective bargaining of the police, de-escalation of confrontations, decertification and qualified immunity. There was a question of whether or not the Commission can act on its own — a legal question. The sense is that the Commission could make a big impact on the Legislature this time. Will they work with any other group? They are working with OIR (Office of Intergovernmental Relations), but they are an independent
agency. 

There is a meeting that will be held on Friday of this week, under some pressure, because the Commission has only one week to turn this around. It can’t be a meeting of the whole Commission because if it were, it would need to be public. Mark Mullens asked for a invite to that committee, and previously, apparently, other members had volunteered.

Discussion with CM Lewis on Police Funding
Next came a long report from Council member Andrew Lewis. He thanked the Commission for inviting him and he focused on what the restructuring of the first response in Seattle will be. What will be responding to crisis if not the police?
CM Lewis referenced a group called CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets). It has worked in Eugene, OR for thirty or so years along with the police. It deals on its own with 911 calls regarding drug overdoses, bad trips on drugs, extreme poverty needs (socks and food).

There is also a Denver, CO group called STAR which works this unhoused people. These groups do not respond to crimes, but 56% of Seattle Police calls are not for crimes. We have a similar pilot program here: Help One, run out of the Fire Department. CM Lewis is working to double the program, which currently has only one van. They are hoping to add a second vehicle and expand the hours. The Defender Association could be a partner, since they have acquired an old clinic, and they are looking to do a CAHOOTS-style transport. Lewis is looking to raise $50,000 to develop this system, and is asking for a grant.

These systems could have a massive impact. The dispatch system is very interested in having an alternative to the police, and the police also want a low acuity response system.

Alina Santinan: Sometimes it is not clear if it is a crime or not, especially when Black people are concerned. What exactly is a public safety issue? We don’t have a planned infrastructure to support a CAHOOTS, e.g. supported housing, etc.

CM Lewis responded: There is a problem with people feeling uncomfortable and calling the Police unnecessarily. Defund SPD calls for making 911 independent of the police. He agreed that we need to develop more long-term services. We have outreach but no scaling to help people stay out of trouble. We have passed Jump Start for more scalable housing for on-site services with Permanent Supportive Housing. And now we are streamlining land-use practices to wave restrictions that add to the cost of Permanent Supportive Services. 60% of CAHOOTS responses involve homelessness.

Brandy Grant: What tools and training have been instituted to insure non-violent responses by the Police? Adding mental health professionals to the team?

CM Lewis: Crisis Intervention Team has the Police paired with Mental Health Behavior Professionals. And Officers had De-escalation Training. CAHOOTS staff need 500 hours of training. DESC, a mobile crisis team, should be able to be first responders instead of just being called after police have arrived.

Commissioners said the officers need to have ongoing training and make CIT the Officer’s career instead of rotating them in and out.

Esther Lucero:  Police should be decentered from crisis response. Why train police too? Seattle depends on the County instead of just relying on local groups. We should reach out to community-based organizations. Gave example of a building formerly belonging to Thunder Bird program (sic) that had been leased by the Defender Assoc. to expand services to people facing high barriers.

There was discussion about how CAHOOTS is an abolition-based model, with the ultimate goal of replacing police with civilian service providers. Police have no power over CAHOOTS. 

Help One is run by public health professionals under the Fire Dept.

CM Lewis: Agreed that City is too dependent on King County for services.

Rev. Walden: Pointed out that Eugene, OR is more homogenous than Seattle, middle class, and also smaller.

CM Lewis: Recognized her point, but stated New York also looked at that program and Denver has something similar with the STAR Program. Some of the cities looking at these models are even more diverse than Seattle, like Oakland.

Update from Office of Police Accountability
Andrew Myerberg gave an update on the shooting deaths of Shaun Fuhr and Terry Caver. They are working to determine whether any policies were violated. In Caver's case, all three officers were found to have failed to de-escalate. 

Rev. Walden: Do you investigate any officer shooting case?

Myerberg: They open their own case and respond to complaints.

Doug Wagoner: What is the difference between OPA's process and an inquest?

Myerberg: Inquests are separate and apart from OPA investigations and occur after the OPA finishes its investigation.

Colleen Echohawk: Shooting someone with a knife triggers her. De-escalation is necessary when there is someone with a knife who has mental health issues. In the Caver case, why were the Tasers not working?

Myerberg: Agreed there were problems.

Mark Mullens: Confused about complaint process for knife cases.

Colleen Echohawk: De-escalation can be done in those situations.

Mark Mullens: Sorry that some of these situations end the way they do, but there are many situations where police do de-escalate and you don't hear about it. A knife is a deadly weapon and most situations end well.

Esther Lucero: We need to acknowledge the triggering experience and look at all these cases. It's too simple to say a knife is a deadly weapon.

Rev. Walden: Charleena Lyles weighed 97 pounds. What does a take-down look like?

Myerberg: Trying to find a way forward. Not his job to justify officers' actions. CPC should review all the cases to be a check on OPA. If they think he has done something wrong, he wants them to call him out. Going through 18,000 complaints between June and Labor Day, which included duplicates. 14,000 were from pepper spraying of a child. Questions of excessive force and lack of de-escalation. CPC will receive the closed files in 30 days. 

Potential Recommendations and Closing Comments
- Bringing community voices forward
- We add to the community engagement list of participants
- Mayor's budget speech coming up on Sept. 29th
- Call on engaging the Mayor's Office in their ideas
- Upcoming Committee meeting on Friday

Mark Mullens: Asked for anyone who wants to discuss with him where he's coming from. He is concerned about people dying from cops when they accost people with knives. Clarified: When people talked about being triggered, it made him sound like he was defending all cops.

 Virtual Meeting Highlights
Public input did not happen. The CPC went into executive session while the public sat and waited for 20 min during the public comment portion of the meeting. There were several chat comments from the public on how this was not legal or democratic.

When the committee came back to the same zoom call as the public, they explained that they were reviewing public comment policy for their meetings. And that currently they could take written public comment.

There seemed to be some disagreement between public members and members of the CPC as to CPCs ability to take public comments during meetings. The comments in the chat seemed to suggest that the CPC members had the ability to take public comments but were using the bylaws as an excuse to not take public comments.