Bill Passes Allowing Seattle Police to Use Certain Less-Lethal Weapons on Crowds

The Seattle City Council passed a bill Tuesday allowing police officers — in limited cases — to use weapons like tear gas, pepper spray and blast balls to control crowd movement during protest.

Past councils greatly restricted the use of such weapons in the wake of the Seattle Police Department's violent response to racial justice protests following the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. The weapons are designed to incapacitate or deter people without killing them, but can cause serious injury or even death if improperly deployed. Previous legislation, passed as a result of public outcry over police violence and lawsuits, had all but barred the use of the weapons.

The 6-3 vote draws Seattle closer to the end of more than a dozen years of federal oversight for the city's Police Department.

With the ordinance's passage, the city has said it will file a joint motion with the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division seeking to formally dissolve a settlement agreement that the two sides entered in 2012. The settlement was the result of a DOJ investigation that concluded Seattle officers used excessive force in one of every five arrests, that they frequently escalated situations and that they used force while making arrests for minor crimes, particularly against people who were intoxicated or in crisis. The DOJ also found evidence of biased policing.

After more than $200 million in expenditures that have funded a top-to-bottom overhaul of the department's use-of-force policies, training regimens and data-gathering capabilities — including the advent of body cameras — enactment of a crowd-control ordinance that passes constitutional muster is the final requirement of U.S. District Judge James Robart and his court-appointed monitor.

Under the new ordinance, Seattle police officers can only use these tools if circumstances "are occurring or about to occur" that present an imminent risk of physical injury or significant property damage. The incident commander, who is in charge of a scene, would have to approve the use of the weapons. In the case of tear gas and blast balls, the mayor would have to declare a state of civil emergency.

State law already restricts the use of tear gas, saying it can only be used to alleviate risk in a riot, a hostage situation or a situation where someone has barricaded themselves.

Tuesday's bill was amended to require the chief of police to authorize the deployment of blast balls after the mayor declares a civil emergency, and that blast balls must be thrown underhand and away from people. If there is an immediate threat to life safety, a blast ball can be thrown overhand or near a person, according to one of the adopted amendments.

A previous council essentially banned less lethal weapons despite strong pushback from the department's leadership at the time, who warned it would result in more dangerous weapons being used. Tuesday's bill repeals that ban.

During public comment, several people who spoke in opposition to the ordinance said they took part in the 2020 protests and saw firsthand how police deployed the weapons.

"No matter what policies and safeguards you write, council members ... people will get hurt," said Matthew Offenbacher, a Capitol Hill resident who was at a climate protest against Amazon when a Seattle police captain drove into the protest. "The only way to make sure people are safe is to deny SPD access to these weapons."

Gabriel Jones, who opposed the ordinance during public comment, shouted upon its passage: "Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for your City Council that has just voted to kill more Seattleites!"

In practice, the weapons had never actually been banned. A revised law got caught in the legal labyrinth of court oversight over the department. In that time, the Police Department relied on its own internal policies regulating their use. The department has not used blast balls since October 2020, according to Chief Operating Officer Brian Maxey.

An amendment that would have required mutual aid officers from other jurisdictions to comply with policy if they're going to play a role in crowd management failed to pass, with Councilmember Bob Kettle expressing concern that other officers would not come to the aid of Seattle police.

"I don't think that we should be inviting people to manage our crowds if they are unwilling to fully comply with SPD policy," said Councilmember Cathy Moore, who introduced the failed amendment.

Councilmembers Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Joy Hollingsworth and Moore voted against Tuesday's bill, citing concerns about lacking accountability measures and what Moore described as a "rushed" process to get the bill passed, which she said might hurt Seattle's ability to get out of the federal consent decree.

"There hasn't been enough time for the community to be engaged," Moore said. "... We haven't really come that far from 2020."

With Tuesday's stumbling block out of the way, the city is expected to submit the passed ordinance to the federal monitor for judicial review. The ordinance also requires the Police Department to create an annual report on the use of force in crowd management situations and submit it to the city by the end of the next year's first quarter.

"Ultimately, this is about ... capstoning the reforms that have been completed over the last dozen years," said Kettle. "This is crucial to cement the reforms."

Seattle Times staff reporter Mike Carter contributed to this story.

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