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City Council toughens rule on police IDs
Tuesday, September 26, 2000
KERY MURAKAMI
Seattle City Council members yesterday toughened a requirement that uniformed police officers wear identification, a reform flowing from last fall's chaotic World Trade Organization conference.
WTO protesters had complained they couldn't see some officers' identification and couldn't file excessive force complaints against them. And police officials acknowledged that some officers' badges were inadvertently concealed under rain gear.
The new rule, approved unanimously, says officers must wear identification on their outermost clothing or face departmental discipline. Off-duty and undercover officers are exempt from the requirement, which was proposed by Councilmen Jim Compton and Peter Steinbrueck.
A number of other reforms are expected to follow. Council members say they will make sure future major events won't end up filling the streets with tear gas and saddling city taxpayers with millions of dollars in costs.
The council's Public Safety Committee will consider most of the 40 recommendations made by three citizen committees who examined what went wrong with WTO.
One citizen panel concluded that lack of preparedness for the WTO conference left police overwhelmed and with little option but to use tear gas. Compton said he will ask police to propose remedies.
The citizen panels also said a lack of oversight by Mayor Paul Schell and the council meant that the city did not insist that other governments and private groups help pay for the conference. The council's budget committee will look at creating a public involvement process before major events are invited to the city.
And the council's Legislative Committee will examine giving the council a greater check on the mayor's power to declare emergency orders, like the imposition of a curfew and "no-protest zone" during the confence.
Council members do not expect to take action until early next year.
P-I reporter Kery Murakami can be reached at 206-448-8029
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