Since the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild (SPOG) announced they’d tentatively agreed on a contract with the city, police watchdogs have been freaking out over a line from a Times article last week:

As for police accountability, O’Neill said some language was tweaked but otherwise, “the spirit of the recommendations … came through.”

According to O’Neil, the tweaks are indeed fairly minor. Some of the changes involved how many people were allowed to sit in on disciplinary hearings, and the conditions for when an officer can be terminated for dishonesty. According to O’Neil, an officer has to have provided a “flat out, bold-faced lie” about a material fact in a case in order to be dismissed.

One thing that hasn’t changed—for better or worse—is the so-called 180-day rule, which limits the length of an internal misconduct investigation. The Mayor’s police accountability panel recommended giving the Office of Professional Accountability Director—which conducts internal probes—more discretionary power in extending the investigation period, but O’Neil says the OPA already has the ability to request a deadline extension. However, SPOG can deny OPA’s extension requests.

There’s been some grumbling amongst officers about the contract, but O’Neil still believes it will get approved. Ballots were mailed out to officers last Friday, and votes will be counted on May 16th.