Mayor sends Seattle police reform plan to council

In August of 2010 a Seattle police officer shot Woodcarver John T. Williams after just four seconds warning. A shooting that was determined to be unjustified.

Now after a federal lawsuit and 6 1/2 years of work Mayor Ed Murray is sending a police accountability plan to the City Council for approval.

The plan calls for a new independent inspector general, to make permanent the community police commission -- and to strengthen the Office of Police Accountability with more civilian investigators.

The new inspector general will play a key role in winning the public's trust.

“The independence of this role, the power to subpoena, in this role the ability to look at any practice and any policy not simply a complaint based one,” said Murray.

This comes on the same day that new use of force figures from Seattle police show improvement.

In the last year the use of intermediate and serious force is down 50 percent, officer-involved shootings are down 75 percent.

Another case from seven years ago involved a police officer stomping on a Mexican-American suspect.

Civil rights lawyer Lorena Gonzalez sued the city -- and is now on the City Council.

“We got to make sure that we're looking at how we insulate some of these positions from the political winds that can sometimes influence police reform,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez now chairs the committee that will examine and revise the accountability plan.

Seattle Police Guild President Kevin Stuckey says his union is ready for collective bargaining to implement the plan, “I'm ready and so are my members,” he said.

Public hearings begin next Wednesday.

Cox Media Group