SEATTLE — The Seattle City Council voted to approve legislation that sets ground rules on crowd management for the police department.
On Tuesday, the council voted 6-3 in favor of the legislative language that will include amendments that provide additional oversight, accountability and checks on the use of blast balls for crowd control.
“The crowd management guidelines we passed today strike an important balance of giving our police officers flexibility to keep people in large gatherings safe, while also adding in clearly defined accountability measures,” said Public Safety Committee Chair Bob Kettle. “I want to thank the Mayor’s Office and Seattle Police Department for their work in aligning the legislation with best practices so we can end the consent decree. I also want to thank all those that reached out to us on this bill and especially our accountability partners.”
The legislation was proposed since no previous regulations existed that governed the use of less lethal weapons for crowd control.
In 2020, an ordinance that banned the use of less lethal weapons was overturned by a federal court that oversaw Seattle’s consent decree that resulted in an interim policy being put in place.
Once the mayor signs this policy, it will be sent to the federal court that oversees Seattle’s consent decree. The court will determine whether the policy can be implemented and will grant the council the authority to file a motion to end the consent decree.
More information can be found here.