It all goes down next week at Seattles federal courthouse.
It all goes down next week at Seattle's federal courthouse. PNNL.gov

When it comes to the hot-button issues of policing and race, it's difficult to overstate how much is riding on next Monday's consent decree "status conference" at Seattle's federal courthouse.

At stake is the city's outdated, much-criticized accountability system for cops—one that, to take one example, allows officers like Cynthia Whitlatch to appeal their firings to boards stacked two-to-one with fellow cops.

It's been five years since the department submitted to federal supervision under the consent decree, after a Department of Justice investigation raised concerns about racial bias and found that the SPD was engaged in a pattern of excessive force (i.e. beating people up).

The status conference, which brings all the parties together, takes place at the courthouse on 7th and Stewart on Monday, August 15 at 1:30 p.m. The public is welcome to attend.

Last month, the City of Seattle asked Federal District Court Judge James Robart, who oversees the consent decree, to sign an order clearing the way for the city to pass its own law improving the accountability system. Crucially, they were joined in making this request by the Obama administration's Department of Justice.

"The Parties, jointly respectfully request that the Court grant the proposed order referenced below and endorse the City’s plan to proceed through the legislative process," they wrote.

The proposed order includes a blank space inviting Robart's signature. And, in deference to the judge, it gives the court 90 days to review such a law before it goes into effect.

The law the City Council would take up, if allowed to, would be based largely on a set of 55 recommendations issued by the Community Police Commission back in 2014. The commissioners are deeply frustrated that their recommendations have languished for two years.

That means everyone is waiting with bated breath to see what Judge Robart will say next Monday.

The judge is notoriously protective of what he sees as his own expansive authority over the department. At last year's hearing, after a push from the commissioners to turn the recommendations into law, a bowtie-ed Robart ranted at length about groups attempting to "grab power":

"It strikes me reading these news reports that we have various groups seeking to grab power," Robart continued. "And that's not going to happen because the court is the one who controls the settlement agreement."

Then, last week, federal monitor Merrick Bobb—who acts as Robart's agent—weighed in with his own sixteen-page letter to the court outlining in specific ways how the accountability system should change.

The letter doesn't go nearly far enough, according to the Community Police Commission, whose members worry that the judge could adopt only Bobb’s proposals and leave their more expansive reforms in limbo. The commissioners hit back the next day with their own letter to the judge, saying the monitor's proposal excludes some of the most important, far-reaching reforms they've recommended from contemplation.

For example, Bobb's letter doesn't include budgetary independence for the Office of Professional Accountability or an Inspector General position. His plan also disbands the Community Police Commission instead of making it a permanent form of civilian oversight. And his plan doesn't make provisions for open, non-secret bargaining with police unions.

"Many of the CPC’s proposed reforms go beyond what the Monitor is proposing," the commissioners said, "and the City Council should be free to consider and legislate additional measures to ensure a highly effective police accountability system."

Asked about the criticism, Bobb responded coyly in an e-mail today: "I have no comment. Perhaps the issue will come up at the August 15 hearing."

Perhaps!