Report: Seattle police stop Black people, Native Americans at far higher rate than white people – By Mike Carter (Seattle Times) / July 26 2021
Seattle police watchdogs and civil libertarians say they are alarmed and disappointed by a new report showing officers — despite nearly a decade under federal oversight partly intended to address bias — continue to stop and use force against Black people in the city far more often than white people.
The report found that Black people, per capita, were seven times more likely to be subjected to force by Seattle police than white people, and five times more likely to be stopped and questioned. Native Americans in the city were nine times more likely to be stopped, it said.
The greatest disparities were found in incidents where force was used against children or young adults: the report noted that , while Black people make up 7% of the city’s population, “most children and young people who were subjected to SPD force were Black.”
The 54-page document, completed in January and posted without fanfare on the Seattle Police Department’s website on July 15, was compiled by the Center for Policing Equity, a Los Angeles-based social justice and policing think tank. It analyzed SPD data on tens of thousands of citizen interactions between 2015-2019.
