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A MOTION requiring the sheriff's office, in cooperation with the executive and the office of law enforcement oversight, to report on identified policy changes needed to improve use-of-force and interactions with certain populations; also its progress to ensure that departmental staff receive appropriate training and equipment for reducing the need for officer-involved use of force and to improve interactions with individuals who are in behavioral health crisis or from disadvantaged communities; and, requiring that the sheriff develop a report and implementation plans to implement identified recommendations and plans to update policies.
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WHEREAS, the justice and safety goal of the King County Strategic Plan prioritizes keeping people safe in their homes and communities, and
WHEREAS, the service excellence goal of the King County Strategic Plan prioritizes building a culture of service that is responsive and accountable to the community, and
WHEREAS, the King County sheriff's office provides a variety of regional and local law enforcement services. The sheriff's office is the first response "police department" for all of King County's unincorporated areas. In addition, the sheriff's office, through contracts, is the "police department" for twelve King County cities, Metro Transit, Sound Transit, the King County international airport and several other federal, state, tribal and governmental agencies. The sheriff's office has several important regional responsibilities, including the operation of the county's automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS), E-911 call and dispatch, King County search and rescue and various other regional programs. Consequently, the sheriff's office serves all two million persons in the county, along with countless others who work, visit and travel through the county, and is one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the Pacific Northwest; only the city of Seattle and the Washington State Patrol have more commissioned officers, and
WHEREAS, according to the United States Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, building and maintaining community trust is the cornerstone of successful policing and law enforcement, and
WHEREAS, according to the sheriff's General Orders Manual, "a law enforcement agency must maintain a high level of personal and official conduct if it is to command and deserve the respect and confidence of the public it serves," and
WHEREAS, to build and maintain community trust, it is incumbent on sheriff's office leadership and managing supervisors to foster an environment in which best practices, training and technology foster responsive, appropriate, ethical and conscientious behavior, and
WHEREAS, to build and maintain community trust, it is incumbent on the county, along with sheriff's office leadership, to foster an environment in which improved training and new technology that can support improvements to how deputies and other sheriff's staff use force or respond to those in behavioral crisis or from disadvantaged communities is evaluated and promulgated, and
WHEREAS, in accordance with Ordinance 18409, the council requested the sheriff's office provide a report on implicit bias, de-escalation and crisis intervention training before the release of $800,000 in the 2017-18 biennium;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT MOVED by the Council of King County:
A.1. It is the intent of the council that the sheriff's office review, revise and report on its changes to relevant sheriff office policies and general operating procedures to include reviewing and revising current policies related to the use-of-force, de-escalation, community caretaking responses and searches, responding to persons in a behavioral crisis and contacting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Where appropriate, the sheriff's office should utilize recommendations and lessons learned through recent use-of-force investigations to update and improve policies.
2. The report shall include, but is not limited to, identifying: which use-of-force, de-escalation and community caretaking responses and searches, responding to persons in a behavioral crisis and contacting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities policies have been reviewed; which policies have been identified to be modified, added, or deleted; how changes have been made to the sheriff's office general orders manual; how sheriff's office personnel will be notified of policy changes; and any needed training resources, particularly for in-person, rather than online computer-based training, needed to implement the new or modified policies.
B. It is the intent of the council that the sheriff's office ensure that departmental staff receive increased in-person training, rather than online computer-based training, technology and other resources for reducing either the need for or the severity of officer-involved use of force, or both. To ensure that this policy is fully implemented the sheriff's office, in cooperation with the executive and the office of law enforcement oversight, shall develop a report and implementation plan that includes, but is not limited to:
1. Report on progress to continue comprehensive, in person, scenario-based taser training to enhance and improve the sheriff's office deployment this less-than-lethal technology;
2. An analysis of the number of sheriff's office staff that have been trained in the use of acceptable less-than-lethal force options, the number of staff that have access to less-than-lethal force options and the availability of the equipment for these options. In addition, the review should include an analysis of the resources needed to procure and field sufficient less-than-lethal force options that are not currently available to sheriff's personnel, but have been identified as needed to reduce the severity of officer use of force; to include the cost of procurement, the costs to fully train staff for the use of the identified less-than-lethal force options and the timelines for the procurement and in person, rather than computer-based online training on the identified less-than-lethal force options. The analysis should include recommendations on how the proposed procurement and in-person training can be funded; and
3. Plans and timelines to introduce new in-person training to incorporate less-than-lethal technology identified in subsection 2. of this section, to reduce either the number of or the severity of use-of-force incidents. The development of the timelines should also identify appropriate dates for the provision of reports to the council on the progress of the implementation of identified recommendations.
C. It is the intent of the council that the sheriff's office take appropriate action to improve staff interactions with individuals who are in behavioral health crisis or from disadvantaged communities. To ensure that this policy is fully implemented, the sheriff's office, in cooperation with the executive and office of law enforcement oversight, shall develop a report and an implementation plan that includes, but is not limited to:
1. A plan delivered by December 1, 2017, showing how the sheriff's office will ensure that all commissioned staff receive the state-certified forty-hour crisis intervention training class by the end of 2018. The plan should include: the timelines and resources needed to fully train all commissioned staff; options for providing the training in an expedited manner, such as training done either at non-training commission academy locations or with non-academy training staff, or both; and an estimated schedule for ensuring that all commissioned staff receive the forty-hour crisis intervention training class;
2. An analysis of the benefits and costs of creating a position of crisis intervention training coordinator to aid the sheriff's office in developing policies and procedures for interactions with persons in behavioral health crisis, evaluating commissioned staff reports on behavioral health incidents and serving as a resource and advisor to sheriff's office staff on how best to interact with those who are in behavioral health crisis. In addition, the analysis should include the recommended job requirements, job description, timeline for hiring and an estimate of the resources needed for the position;
3. An evaluation of whether current crisis intervention training can be modified for use by communications staff, especially 911 operators and dispatchers to improve the interaction with those in behavioral health crisis. The review should also include the timelines and resources needed to develop crisis intervention training for communications staff;
4. An update on the status of personnel being trained in the justice-based policing program, implicit bias training, de-escalation and any recommendations on how this training can be extended to all sheriff's office personnel; and
5. An analysis of available training resources to expand de-escalation training for commissioned staff to be made available for annual in-person staff in-service training or through other training modalities.
D. The executive shall file the report required by this motion by December 1, 2017, in the form of a paper original and an electronic copy with the clerk of the council, who shall retain the original and provide an electronic copy to all councilmembers, the
council chief of staff, the policy staff director and the lead staff for the law and justice committee, or their successors.