Fighting for Statewide Reforms

The Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission (WSCJTC) has broad powers to decide how law enforcement is regulated, trained, and certified statewide. However, the overwhelming majority of the commission's voting members are current law enforcement, leading to a situation where law enforcement is regulating itself. Only three of the 16 seats on the commission are designated for community members.

We witnessed this system fail last year. After 60 percent of Washington voters approved Initiative 940 requiring independent investigations of police killings, the rules for how independent investigations would work were ultimately decided by the WSCJTC. What they approved did not meet community expectations. That is one of the reasons why that issue has still not been settled, and the Governor has had to create yet another commission to advise him how to properly implement independent investigations.

In order to truly implement a community-centered model of policing, Seattle should advocate for at least 50 percent of the WSCJTC's voting members to be non-law-enforcement community members.

Other statewide reforms we need:

• Remove police accountability from the bargaining process
• Remove arbitration as a route of appeal for police misconduct
• Repair Washington's broken decertification system
• Institute truly independent investigations
• Ban tear gas in Washington State
• End qualified immunity
• Strengthen requirements for officers to intervene