Merrick Bobb, the federally appointed monitor of the Seattle Police Department, issued his first report today on how we're doing when it comes abiding by a federal court settlement to reform policing (like not killing Native Americans willy-nilly in the street). I'm buried with other stuff, so I can't write up the whole thing, but here: Take a look at Bobb's report.

Two quick things: (1) The section on use of force looks especially interesting. This year, zero cases have been found of officers violating the current—i.e., pre-settlement agreement—use of force policy. We'll see if changes to that policy result in a different figure in future reports.

(2) But what stands out most of all are Bobb's comments about officers still opposed to reform:

The SPD has taken its first steps down the road to compliance. Yet, it still does not speak with one voice. In-fighting up and down the command staff level has been a concern. The SPD does not appear settled on a unified vision of what it is to become. We are hopeful that interim Chief Pugel will articulate that vision by embracing the Settlement Agreement.

A part of the SPD, mostly but not exclusively within the union-organized ranks, remains “dug in” and continues to resist the force and implications of the Settlement Agreement. Part of the cause of this resistance may be because the Settlement Agreement has not been adequately explained to captains, lieutenants, sergeants, and rank-and-file officers. The Monitor and the Monitoring Team have been misidentified as being part of the Department of Justice to officers at several roll calls.

Stories and myths have been fed to rank-and-file officers without their having received counterbalancing messages from the command staff to understand reform as being in the long-term best interests of all officers and the Department. The time has come for the all persons in the SPD, and particularly those with influence and authority, to move past their disagreements with DOJ and to get on with reform. Over the next six months, the Monitor will be looking for signs of improvement in these areas, including efforts by command staff to make clear that the Settlement Agreement is here to stay and is not going to be fed to the shredder; by captains to make clear that their units or precincts will fully implement the provisions calling for greater responsibility and accountability for managing the risk of police misconduct; by sergeants in their obligation to make certain their squads are policing in a constitutional manner, and by the rank-and-file, understanding that a new protocol is being developed and that certain of the former procedures are unacceptable.

Similarly, the disagreements at the highest level of City government also will not distract the Monitoring Team from doing its job and holding the SPD to account to the Court.

I love Merrick Bobb. He's going to be terrific.