By CASEY MCNERTHNEY
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
The Seattle Police Department’s top commanders are telling officers to watch their mouths after several recent complaints about officers using profanity in their dealings with the public.
The department is also clarifying its policy on profanity and wants employees to justify when they have to resort to swearing. Seattle police officers recently received training instructing them that profanity and other demeaning language wouldn”t be tolerated.
Those steps were detailed Wednesday in a report of recommendations issued by the department’s Office of Professional Accountability, which investigates complaints of misconduct against officers, including incidents involving ethnic slurs and use of force.
Following recent high-profile incidents, O’Neill cautioned that people shouldn’t judge incidents only on the sections captured by video, and said officers deal with some dangerous people.
“It’s not Mister Rogers Neighborhood,” he said Wednesday, referring to the swearing policy.
The ACLU is calling for the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether there is a pattern and practice of civil rights violations by Seattle police in violation of the constitution and federal law.
via Police brass tell patrol officers to watch their mouths.
