Court vacates award reinstating police officer who struck handcuffed individual

A court has vacated the award of Arbitrator Jane Wilkinson reinstating Seattle police Officer Adley Shepherd. City of Seattle, Seattle Police Department v. Seattle Police Officers' Guild, Arbitrator Jane Wilkerson and Adley Shepherd  Officer Shepherd was dismissed following the Department's determination that he had used excessive force when he struck a handcuffed individual while attempting to place her in his patrol car. The interaction was captured by the in-car video.

Arbitrator Wilkinson concluded that Officer Shepherd violated the Department's Use of Force Policy. She found, however, that termination was too severe and not proportionate to the offense. Because of this lack proportionality, together with other mitigating factors, she reduced the termination to a fifteen day suspension.

In its decision, the Washington  Superior Court determined that the award was contrary to public policy and, accordingly, vacated it.

The Court found that the policy against police use of excessive force was explicit, dominant and well-defined. Turning to the question of whether the award reducing the termination to a fifteen day suspension was contrary to that policy, the Court concluded:

Allowing this imposed discipline to stand, which includes reinstatement of Officer Shepherd, sends a message to law enforcement officers and to the public that the use of excessive force on handcuffed or restrained persons is allowed in situations when officer patience is stretched thin or when an officer feels stinging pain inflicted by a handcuffed suspect who is no longer threatening immediate harm or when there are other options for control available. 

It is not clear from the opinion whether any discipline short of termination would address the Court's public policy concerns.

This award was one of the factors US District Court Judge James Robart relied on in concluding that the City was not in effective compliance with the consent decree entered into by the City and the US Department of Justice following a DOJ claim that the Seattle Police Department had engaged in a pattern and practice of excessive force. US v. City of Seattle. Judge Robart was critical of the City's efforts to ensure continuing accountability, particularly regarding the provisions contained in the most recent cba with the police union concerning the arbitration process for police discipline. The Court noted:

Because the CBA eliminates reforms instituted by the Accountability Ordinance and leaves the old arbitration regime "materially unchanged" (see U.S. Resp. at 3), the court finds that the City and SPD have fallen out of full and effective compliance with the Consent Decree concerning SPD discipline and accountability. Before the court will terminate the Consent Decree as it pertains to accountability, the City must bring itself into compliance in this area and then sustain that compliance for two years. (See Consent Decree ¶¶ 229-30.)

Both the City and the Community Police Commission have filed responses to the Court's concerns. Seattle’s police-reform plan is ‘busywork,’ citizen panel says in asking federal judge to reject proposal.  (Previous filings in the case are discussed here and here.)