Seattle police will begin implementing the nation’s first policy that governs the use of police patrol “ruses,” a statement an officer knows is not true but may be helpful to an investigation, according to city press release Monday.

“Effective public safety requires community buy-in, and this new policy is an important step to build understanding with the public, demonstrating that for Seattle Police Department (SPD) operations to be successful, they must be paired with a commitment to unbiased, constitutional policing,” said Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell.

The policy comes a few years after a Seattle officer’s ruse contributed to the suicide of a hit-and-run driver in 2018. Another controversial ruse was when officers created fake radio traffic to try and get protesters away from the CHAZ/CHOP zone in 2020. Harrell directed the SPD to develop the new policy because those cases undermined the public’s trust and confidence in police, according to the SPD.

  • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I was going to post this but could not find a source that is not right wing garbage. KOMO is owned by Sinclair Broadcasting which forces their stations to play their right wing fear mongering. The other two sources I found were Fox News (self-explanatory) and MyNorthwest which is a regional far-right publication.