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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Crime Norm Stamper Calls Cops "Junior Partners" in Community

Posted by Dominic Holden on Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 1:13 PM

Blogger Ian Awesome interviews former Seattle Police Department chief Norm Stamper:

I would offer this view to any chief including Diaz. If you do not conceive of your police department as belonging to the community, then you have the wrong conception of policing a free and democratic society. I think it’s very important the police take the view that they are the junior partners of the communities they serve. If there’s a senior partner in that relationship, it is the community by at least a ratio 51/49, and that isn’t just the business community or blind supporters of the police department, but also critics and those who have been on the receiving end of oppressive police action.

Read the whole interview.

Comments (6) RSS

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Unfortunately, many of the junior partners of Seattle live in Puyallup, Auburn, Marysville and North Bend. No wonder they view us as aliens.

Posted by the idiot formerly known as kk on January 26, 2012 at 1:39 PM

@1, feel free to flog that around if you like, but bear in mind that the community SPD serves includes at any given moment very large numbers of people who do not live here either. Because Seattle is, you know, a city, not a bedroom community.

Moreover, citizens of Seattle proper are overwhelmingly majority-white. Why does that matter for purposes of your idea? Because to make sure SPD becomes less a straight white male bastion we *need* to recruit from those outlying areas you deride, where the diversity has been trending lately, especially among African-Americans. Just something to think about.

Posted by gloomy gus on January 26, 2012 at 1:55 PM

I used to see Norm Stamper hanging out in coffee shops all the time when he was chief. He always had a smile and warm hello. I saw him at rally's against violence aimed at gay people, too. He always came over to talk. He walked the talk. I miss him. Good man.

Posted by Vince on January 26, 2012 at 2:25 PM

I spoke with him for about an hour on the phone when conducting this interview and honestly it was one of the most enjoyable conversations I've had in a long time.

Posted by Ian Awesome

on January 26, 2012 at 3:28 PM

Stamper had the misfortune to be Chief during the wildly mismanaged WTO riots. It was a damn shame, really - as he came into the job with the very approach revealed in the article, and (with the exception of some pretty over the top abuses of power during WTO) he was probably one of the best Chiefs this city has ever had.

Posted by Just Jeff

on January 26, 2012 at 5:20 PM

"Stamper had the misfortune to be Chief during the wildly mismanaged WTO riots"

WTF!!! STAMPER hmself was the one who "wildly mismanaged" the police response there. He's managed this ironic hipster disconnect where he bemoans what happened, without ever owning up to his responsibility.

Fuck him.

Posted by Fuck you Stamper on January 26, 2012 at 9:20 PM