Police officer fired for bias case on Capitol Hill

The Seattle Police Department officer involved in the wrongful arrest of an elderly man with a golf club was fired Tuesday.

Quick Facts: 

• Officer Cynthia Whitlatch fired after 2014 incident on Capitol Hill.
• Man involved, William Wingate, 70, suing the city.
• Whitlatch failed to understand how her behavior was "unnecessarily aggressive," chief siad.
• Whitlatch was removed from patrol in January.
• Seattle police union reaction on KIRO 7 from 5-6:30.

The officer, Cynthia Whitlatch, was previously removed from public patrol duties in January by order of Mayor Ed Murray.

"I was disappointed by your failure … to take any responsibility, or show any understanding that your conduct at issue here was inappropriate," SPD Chief Kathleen O'Toole wrote in Whitlatch's disciplinary action report. Click here to download that action report against Whitlatch.

Whitlatch, who is white, expressed a strong belief that the disciplinary actions against her were done because key people involved in the case were black.

“Your inability to understand, even in hindsight, that your behavior was unnecessarily aggressive, an abuse of discretion, and negatively impacted the community’s confidence in this police service, offers me no pathway to understand how you can improve and do better,” O’Toole wrote.

Follow this link to read additional details about the case that led to Whitlatch's firing.

William Wingate, 70, was arrested by Whitlatch while walking in Capitol Hill in July 2014. It was the first time he had been arrested. He was using a golf club as a cane.

“If you're capable of doing this to me in broad daylight and it's on video, what would you do at night, when nobody's around?” Wingate said earlier this year.

Wingate, who is African-American, said he believes the arrest was racially motivated.

“Why did she stop me and no other police officer stopped me?” he asked.

He said he is suing the city not only for himself, but for others who could also become victims.

“Most of the policemen are good people,” he said, “but you’ve got rotten apples in all professions. She is a rotten apple. And the police department knows she's a rotten apple. Why do they keep covering up for her?”

Whitlatch claimed that Wingate swung the club at her, even though there was no indication of that on her patrol car’s dashcam.

The charges against Wingate were later dismissed, but several other behavioral complaints about Whitlatch surfaced including one based on racially-charged Facebook posts.

Police Chief Kathleen O'Toole voiced her concerns to KIRO 7 in February.

“There's no place for racial bias in policing,” she said.

O’Toole said then that police were moving to a new system connecting complaints filed with the Seattle Police Department and the Office of Professional Accountability, which would allow the department to detect problems earlier.

One of Wingate's attorneys, Susan Mindenbergs, called the new system “bureaucratic nonsense” during his May interview. She and his other attorney, Vonda Sargent, said they want more transparency and better police training with special attention to cultural sensitivities.

City Council President Tim Burgess released the following statement after Whitlatch was fired:

The Chief of Police has sent a strong and appropriate signal. Officer behavior that compromises public trust is not acceptable in Seattle.  When the Council confirmed Chief O'Toole last year, we expected her to set a high bar for our officers. Since that time, Chief O'Toole has taken strong measures to create a culture of effective and constitutional policing and to restore pride within the department.  Public trust and confidence in the police is necessary for effective policing and public safety. Respectful and responsible day-to-day encounters between police officers and the public are the basis of this trust.  I appreciate the Chief's strong and decisive leadership and I value the efforts of the women and men of the police department who work every day to keep our community safe.

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