Everybody with an ounce of sense just pack up and move east. Now. While you can.

http://www.kiro7.com/news/loca...ce-reports/521033548


'Community member' term for suspects on Seattle police use of force reports
by: Casey McNerthney, Amy Clancy Updated: May 9, 2017 - 7:02 PM

When Seattle police officers write use of force reports they no longer call a suspect a suspect.

“Community member” is the new term. Several officers say the term is offensive, explaining their work with violent suspects.

Sources point to the suspect who shot three officers last month after a downtown Seattle armed robbery. When officers involved in that incident were writing their use of force reports they were required to refer to the shooter, Damarius Butts, as a “community member,” not a suspect, police sources said.

Police fatally shot Butts after they said he shot the officers.

“I think this is all in an effort to make sure our report writing sounds politically correct,” Seattle Police Officers' Guild Kevin Stuckey told KIRO 7.

The online use of force reporting system, called Blue Team, is used for more than just use of force reports. It also tracks the department’s administrative investigations and the Early Intervention System among other reports. A photo sent to KIRO 7 shows the Blue Team in a recent online department training.

The “community member” terminology changed for multiple forms – but it’s only in the use of force reports that officers find offensive.

“The change appears to be part of a routine update by the software developer, which services more than 600 law enforcement agencies worldwide,” department spokesman Jonah Spangenthal-Lee said. “The department’s force review section has not received any inquiries about the change.”

Changes after DOJ oversight

Department policy restricts officers and other department members from speaking to reporters without a supervisor’s approval, so multiple officers spoke to KIRO 7 to provide background. Kevin Stuckey, the Seattle Police Officers' Guild president who can speak publicly, said he believes the term "community member" is too vague.

“I don’t think you should have a broad stroke like that and call everybody the same thing,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with calling someone who is a victim a victim, or calling someone who’s a suspect a suspect.”

Seattle Police Chief Operating Officer Brian Maxey said the changes are purely for accuracy. Labeling someone a suspect can sometimes be misleading if they are not suspected of anything.

At least through 2010, use of force forms used the terms suspect and subject. Blue Team was adopted after Department of Justice oversight of the department and the term “citizen” was coined for use-of-force reports. Now, the acceptable term is “community member.”

“Similarly, we don't know or inquire about citizenship status, so labeling someone a citizen is arbitrary,” Maxey said in an email.

“Neither term is confusing at all.”

So when do police use force on a suspect who is not suspected of violating a law?

“Doing a building search or responding to an alarm with guns drawn is an example, department spokesman Sean Whitcomb wrote in an e-mail.

“We might contact individuals who are not suspects, but rather subjects. Approaching someone at gun point is Type 1 force, and must be reported.”

Whitcomb and others didn’t specify how long someone at gunpoint has been a reportable use of force or when Type 1 use of force designations were first used.

Officers told KIRO 7 that Type 1 use of force designations came with the Department of Justice oversight, and pointing a gun at a person in such a scenario did not previously require a use of force report.

Department of Corrections made similar change

Changes in terminology are nothing new in Washington, and Whitcomb said “the words are synonymous and commonly used throughout the law enforcement profession.”

Last fall, the Washington Department of Corrections stopped calling inmates “offenders” and instead use the term “student.”

“The term ‘offender’ does have a negative connotation and significantly impacts a broad group of people and communities,” Acting DOC Secretary Dick Morgan wrote in an internal department memo, obtained by KIRO 7.

“Times change, and so does our language.”

However, that means Gary Ridgway -- the most prolific American serial killer who said he has at least 71 victims -- is no longer called an inmate or an offender. Neither are other murderers, rapists and felons.

The phase-out of the word “offender” started Nov. 1 and replaced with “individuals,” “student” or “patient,” the DOC secretary wrote to his staff. Use this link to read the full DOC memo.

“It takes time to change habits but I encourage all of you to make an effort,” Morgan wrote in the memo last fall. “Start by referring to individuals by their names (if you don’t already), practice replacing or removing the word ‘offender’ from your communication and presentation to others.”

In Seattle regarding use of force incidents, Stuckey, the guild president, said he plans to bring up the language concerns to command staff.

“I guess a community member could be the person who breaks into your car and breaking into your home or harms you or your child,” he said. “But who are we talking about?”

And what if they're here illegally? Will they be referred to as an "Person in the Community Illegally" of an "Illegal Community Member"?

Its Seattle... I'm surprised they aren't calling them "future victims of police oppression"

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
And what if they're here illegally? Will they be referred to as an "Person in the Community Illegally" of an "Illegal Community Member"?

No human beings are illegal...that's racist!

Police Report: "The Community Member allegedly assaulted the other Community Member on the night of 11 May 2017 in the community of Seattle."

Seems clear to me?

quote:

Originally posted by Strambo:

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
And what if they're here illegally? Will they be referred to as an "Person in the Community Illegally" of an "Illegal Community Member"?

No human beings are illegal...that's racist!

Police Report: "The Community Member allegedly assaulted the other Community Member on the night of 11 May 2017 in the community of Seattle."

Seems clear to me?

That's why the correct terminology is "PHI" - Person Here Illegally.

"A PHI raped and murdered a Community Member."

So if every suspect is a Community Member, then
every member of the community is a suspect?

Shades of the NKVD.

Welcome to the Socialist Workers Paradise of Seattle.

This just costs departments more in the long run. In litigation, words can impact a case more than facts. Not to mention how the media can spin stories with political correctness and lies.

quote:

Originally posted by indigoss:
This just costs departments more in the long run. In litigation, words can impact a case more than facts. Not to mention how the media can spin stories with political correctness and lies.

Yep, this will also have ramifications on how a jury views the suspect. No matter how heinous the crime, this is the equivalent of his 6th grade graduation photo that the media shows every time a thug is killed by the police after shooting at them.

Suspects are community members who have gotten into trouble - while they are still "community members", maybe they should be something else . . . .

Like suspect, in custody, etc. . . . .

I think it's perfect. As a Police Officer, I have no problem embracing this new term.

(What's the saying? "You make enemies with the police, you better make friends with the criminals." Or something like that...)

Sometimes a little PC is good. I could see calling our man Damarius Butts "the decedent" as being (slightly) preferable to "that dead dirtbag that made the world a better place by leaving it." Heck, it is shorter too and saves officers' time writing it that way. Not quite as descriptive or accurate, but less typing.

Seattle, trying to out-do Berkeley and Santa Cruz one ridiculous measure at a time.

Yea, blame it on the software, which makes changes without human input. That's why the story is about the 600 agencies and not Seattle. Assholes.

“The change appears to be part of a routine update by the software developer, which services more than 600 law enforcement agencies worldwide,” department spokesman Jonah Spangenthal-Lee said.

Just when I think Seattle couldn't possibly look any more foolish, I'm proven wrong.

What kind of idiot comes up with this crap?

There is no limit with what Seattle will come up with to out PC San Francisco or Portland. The city Mayor election is next up. That will be fun to watch who can be more Socialist than the other..

We have reached a juncture in our mutually, cohesive, all encompassing and accepting timeline, where we must carefully consider whether we should continue utilizing verbiage that is sure to avoid any level of offense, consternation, or even slight discomfort by recipients of the message.

Which was in fact a politically correct way of saying...

Time to end this Political correctness crap for good.

Seattle, SF, and all the left coast commie cities need to be nuked from orbit. It's the only the way to be sure the cancer does not spread.

They should be listed as Community Radicals or Comrads for short.

So they didn't actually do anything concrete that solved crimes and captured bad guys? - you know shit like that