Last Thursday, the Seattle/King County NAACP hosted its first community forum on the implementation of Initiative 940 in the City of Federal Way at the Washington Education Association (WEA) Hall. The initiative was passed by majority vote of the public last November and requires the creation of a “good faith test” to determine when the use of deadly force by police is justifiable. I-940 also requires police to receive de-escalation and mental training and provide first aid to victims of police shootings on the scene.
Leslie Cushman, center, a citizen sponsor of I-940, provides attendees at an NAACP Forum in Federal Way on the implementation of I-940 with an overview of the new law. Photo/Candice Richardson.
The forum, titled “Enforcing Initiative 940: Independent Investigations of Peace/Police Officer Involved Homicides in Washington State; A Community Discussion” is the first in a series presented by the Seattle/King County NAACP to take place in select cities throughout King County over the next few months.
“NAACP SKC is a statutory stakeholder; and together with the other stakeholder organizations is engaged in rule-making negotiations with the Criminal Justice Training Commission, to establish training requirements (including first aid) and criteria for independent investigations of deadly force [as required by I-940],” stated Terri Kemp, Police Accountability Chair for the Seattle/King County NAACP.
This initial forum was attended by Federal Way city council members, Federal Way’s Chief of Police, a number of public defenders, members of various community organizations that have given their support, as well as Gail Stone, the Law and Justice Policy Advisor to King County Executive Dow Constantine.
Leslie Cushman, a citizen sponsor of I-940 who works with De-Escalate Washington which campaigned for the initiative’s passing, opened the meeting with a quick explanation of I-940.
Cushman said the Initiative was written simply and by a team of people including formerly incarcerated persons; Lisa Daugaard, Director of the Public Defenders Association; and Andre Taylor, founder of Not This Time; along with consulting with a number of lawyers, and impacted families.
“Most of the stuff that is in here reflects things that we learned weren’t working right,” stated Cushman.
“So [I-940] addresses gaps and the big gap we saw said Washington State had a de facto immunity, no matter how egregious an officer’s behavior was for excessive use of force, they couldn’t be charged,” Cushman continued. “So our main goal was to get rid of that. But as we learned more about police use of deadly force we realized that it would be good to have statewide violence de-escalation training as a requirement.”
After Cushman finished with her presentation defining I-940, a breakout session was introduced for attendees to discuss and reflect on how they would ideally see I-940 being implemented in their own communities, and what should and should not be allowed in independent investigations including how evidence is collected, processed, and administered.
Attorney David Hackney, a former federal prosecutor and current Legal Redress Chair for the Seattle/King County NAACP explained that prior to the passing of I-940 independent investigations typically were conducted by police officers from outside counties.
However, this doesn’t always happen, as in the case of Leonard Thomas of Fife who was unarmed when he was shot by Lakewood Police on his front porch during a domestic dispute. Thomas’s parents, Fred and Annalesa were also in attendance at the forum.
“The main thing for me is a uniform training for officers state-wide so procedures are clearly outlined,” said Annalesa Thomas. “Just the factor of some accountability for the actions taken and that incidents be reviewed by someone independent is huge. In our case, the Assistant Chief at the time [current Lakewood Police Chief Mike Zaro] was also the incident commander at the scene and he later determined with two other officers that their actions were justified. There needs to be independent oversight.”
A number of attendees at the forum agreed and Federal Way Council member Martin Moore wondered aloud if investigations such as these needed to be taken out of police hands entirely with a completely separate accountability group assigned to such events, which was later supported as an option by Hackney.
“Don’t assume that the investigating agency will be a police agency,” stated Hackney. “What we do know from the statute is that it cannot be anyone from the police force or agency where the officer was involved in the shooting. But don’t assume that just because it’s going to be an investigation, that the investigators will necessarily be in a current police agency.”
“Now, one of the things we can talk about is what kind of expertise we want to require when police agencies hire investigators,” he continued. “But it might be of some value, that the person is currently not a police officer or representative.”
Members of the breakout sessions, who chose to publicly state their group’s findings, also spoke on the need for officers to have appropriate time off and mental health care as well as re-training to rely more on non-lethal options when engaging suspects. One theme that regularly popped up as the breakout groups shared their input was the necessity for police officers and citizens to re-engage in non-violent, day-to-day occurrences overall.
Shyan Selah, Education Chair for the Seattle/King County NAACP and a Federal Way native, made it a point to attend this first forum in his hometown and commented on the fact that it was these types of opportunities for engagement that could begin the process of educating both the public and police representatives on each side’s viewpoints and needs.
“The discussion hosted last week by Seattle/King County NAACP at WEA in Federal Way regarding initiative 940 is an important step for many reasons,” said Selah. “To be able to have a dialogue that allows the community, members of law enforcement and elected officials an opportunity to express their insights was in my opinion a positive step in the right direction.”
Additional input from attendees in police/citizen re-engagement included requiring police officers to live in the neighborhoods they police and restarting police beats where officers walk the streets versus solely patrolling in their cars; with the idea that doing so will give them greater understanding of the people who live there and minimize misunderstandings that could turn deadly – such as what occurred with the Thomas family.
Annalesa Thomas had called police when she attempted to pick up her four-year-old grandson and wasn’t able to. Her son, Leonard Thomas had been drinking and Lakewood Police called in their SWAT team. Thomas was bringing his son out to his mother and was standing on the front porch when he was fatally shot after reaching for the child when police detonated a flash bomb in the back of the house, startling him.
“The only reason Leonard died that night was because he was drunk and non-compliant. He didn’t threaten officers or his son,” said Annalesa Thomas who added this month marks six years since their son’s passing.
For details on future Enforcing I-940 Forums taking place, please contact the Seattle/King County NAACP at policeaccountability@seattlekingcountynaacpchapter.org.
By Candice Richardson
The Seattle Medium
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