The Seattle Police Department (SPD) is planning to implement a new Early Intervention System (EIS) developed in partnership with controversial tech company Accenture.  The EIS system, mandated by Seattle’s 2012 consent decree, aims to “identify and mitigate against factors that may lead to negative performance issues, employee discipline, and/

The Inspector General of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) released a report last month, highlighting how the DOJ used secret orders to obtain otherwise private information from the accounts of journalists, congressional staffers, and members of Congress during Trump’s first term as President.  The same type of secret

[Content Warning - descriptions of violence - photos of injuries] On May 30, 2020, downtown Seattle was packed with protesters demanding justice after the world witnessed a Minneapolis Police officer murder George Floyd. Soon after protesters began gathering, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) sprayed a seven year old child and

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has transmitted legislation to Seattle City Council that would eliminate existing codified limits on lethal chemical agents and extremely dangerous impact projectiles, allowing the Seattle Police Department (SPD) to draft new weapons policies unconstrained by city law. On Tuesday December 10, Seattle City Council’s public

The small group who gave the award has frequently met with controversial Israeli state officials, Trump himself and Trump 47's latest picks for Secretary of Defense and Ambassador to Israel. Many speculate the bill will be used to try and silence and shut down critics of Israel. Read

As the U.S. enters Trump's second reign in 2025, he promises to use sweeping executive powers to displace and deport community members across the country. In numerous cases, Trump has called for jailing journalists, violently displacing the poor and unhoused from downtown business districts, and cracking down

The Seattle Police Department (SPD) plans “to acquire and use Unmanned Aerial Systems for specialty teams and patrol operations” according to documents obtained by HardPressed. SPD’s Mirs Vonaschen-Cook submitted an initial technology “privacy assessment” request to Seattle’s Information Technology Department (ITD) in July 2023. Months later in April

On the morning of Trump’s second Presidential election victory, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) took unilateral action against myself and other members of the public, effectively moving to shut down our access to public records. Multiple SPD communiqués sent through the city’s public records portal, GovQA, described monumental

One month after The Urbanist published my report into SPD’s use of mutual aid, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and Office of Inspector General (OIG) jointly quashed an official audit into the policy. My reporting showed that SPD policy allowed mutual aid agencies that respond to Seattle to deploy

The Seattle Police Department (SPD) commanders continue to disseminate false information to the public and elected lawmakers. That conduct may be criminal under Washington State Law. However, the arbiter of whether or not their conduct should be referred for criminal charges is SPD themselves. A top SPD executive now says