These are some of the recommendations in the U.S. Department of Justice's report:

Use of force

The Seattle Police Department (SPD) should:

• Revise its use-of-force policy to clarify that officers must report any use of force above unresisted handcuffing, including the active pointing of firearms. Even in cases of unresisted handcuffing, force should be reported if the subject complains of injury or excessive force.

• Develop and implement a use-of-force policy that includes a specific policy for each and every weapon available to officers, including pepper spray, flashlights, Tasers, batons and the active pointing of a firearm.

• Develop and implement protocols with the Crisis Intervention Team on how to handle interactions with individuals with mental-health issues and individuals who appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

• Use multidisciplinary rollout teams, including the Office of Professional Accountability (OPA), the Training Unit and a prosecutor, to investigate incidents involving serious uses of force.

• Require officers to submit use-of-force statements before they go off-duty unless an officer is physically or mentally incapacitated.

Supervisors should conduct focused reviews of any officers involved in a disproportionately high number of use-of-force incidents for any training or discipline issues.

Office of Professional Accountability

An independent expert should conduct a biyearly randomized, stratified audit of OPA intake.

OPA should develop protocols with its officers, precincts and any outside agency that receives complaints so that all police-misconduct complaints are timely received by OPA for its review and investigation.

SPD and OPA should ensure all in-car video recordings are made available to supervisors for review.

Discriminatory policing

Each police precinct should regularly collect the demographic data for its area.

SPD should revise the Unbiased Policing Policy to outline what behaviors are impermissible and to identify supervisory responsibility in investigations of unbiased policing incidents.

Source: U.S. Department

of Justice