Seattle police union pushes back on insurrection investigation

SEATTLE — The union representing Seattle police officers filed a grievance against the city as an investigation into six officers’ involvement in the Jan. 6 resurrection at the U.S. Capitol comes to an end.

On Jan. 6, 2021 thousands of protesters made history when a rally in support of former president Donald Trump turned into a horrific and deadly siege of the U.S. Capitol building.

Six Seattle police officers were among the many in Washington, D.C., that day.

The officers’ presence during the insurrection prompted an investigation, conducted by the Office of Police Accountability. The OPA had a 180-day timeline to finish the investigation, which expired Monday.

The investigation set out to find whether the officers were simply exercising their freedom of speech by attending the rally, or were involved in the illegal act of storming the nation’s Capitol.

Thursday, the OPA is expected to release its findings to the public.

However, on Wednesday KIRO-7 learned that the union representing Seattle police personnel, the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild, had filed a grievance against the city in an attempt to limit the investigation.

According to the grievance, SPOG argued that the OPA’s request for personal items such as receipts, itineraries, texts and pictures, had violated the nondiscrimination clause in the union’s contract with the city.

“The union is arguing that these are things that this office has not demanded in the past and they were only demanding them because these officers were fans of former president Donald Trump,” explained David Kroman, a reporter with local publication, Crosscut. Kroman was the first to catch wind of the filing.

“I think it’s pretty fair to say that [the union] have been very protective of these six officers,” Kroman continued.

In February, SPOG took legal action to block the officers’ names from being shared with the public. A judge ultimately denied the request.

A few months later, in late May, SPOG filed the grievance.

“Basically making the argument that the things the Office of Police Accountability wanted to see should be off limits to them,” said Kroman.

Given the short 180-day investigation timeline, which expired Monday, the grievance will likely have little impact in this case, but it could be an issue in future.

“There’s sort of a larger story around this grievance too, that it’s still outstanding, and if it were to go to an arbitrator and an arbitrator were to rule in favor of the union, that would limit what this office could demand in future investigations,” Kroman said.

Seattle Police Department intends to release a statement after the OPA investigation findings are made public Thursday afternoon.

SPOG and OPA did not return request for comment.

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