Seattle council committee hears oversight partners’ plans as consent-decree exit nears

The Seattle City Council Public Safety Committee on April 20, 2025 received progress updates from the city’s three principal police accountability partners and the Seattle Police Department on a range of oversight projects as the city prepares for the end of federal court monitoring of SPD.

Inspector General Lisa Judge told the committee the Office of Inspector General (OIG) published its 2024 annual report that morning and is leading multiple reviews that would be relevant to a post-consent-decree future, including audits of vehicular pursuits, an equity assessment of SPD workplace practices, a review of crowd-management work tied to FIFA/World Cup planning and an evaluation of the department’s real-time crime center and camera, automatic-license-plate-reader expansions. “We are continuing to step up our engagements in collaboration with OPA and CPC,” Judge said, adding OIG is preparing multiple reports with staged timelines that extend through 2026.

The OIG update listed several published and planned products: a force review board memo due in May 2025, a vehicular-pursuits audit expected mid-2025, a controlled-substances research project with the University of Washington due December 2025, and a Real Time Crime Center and surveillance effectiveness evaluation due December 2026. Deputy Inspector General Alyssa Pettis Morrison said the office is reviewing crowd-management responses and has engaged Professor Clifford Stott as an international expert for protest- and crowd-management observations.

Bonn…