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Seattle Post Intelligencer - U
03 August 2007

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Citizens panel to track police

The Seattle chapter of the NAACP plans its own review of the city's police discipline system, using a panel that includes people who say they have experienced officer misconduct.

Chapter President James Bible derided a panel established by Mayor Greg Nickels to do the same work as doing little more than surveying other police oversight systems.

"That's simply not enough," Bible said.

The Office of Professional Accountability, which investigates complaints against officers, and other aspects of police oversight have been in the spotlight for months.

In January, two officers arrested a suspected drug dealer who later complained thay they used excessive force and planted drugs on him. After an OPA investigation, the officers were cleared of misconduct, but a videotape of the arrest showed inconsistencies with their reports.

Critics complained that the internal investigation was marred by interference from Chief Gil Kerlikowske.

Nickels then appointed a panel to review the discipline system. City Council President Nick Licata has likewise said he would appoint a panel to do the same thing.

Bible said the NAACP's panel would be different because it would include people who had filed complaints.

One member is Belinda Sandidge, whose son, Carl J. Sandidge, 24, was arrested in August 2005 after an altercation with police.

In their reports, police said they shot Sandidge with a Taser and arrested him because he interfered with their arrest of his friend.

But Sandidge's attorney, Sunil Abraham, said his client never knew that the men involved in the altercation were police because they were in plain clothes and an unmarked pickup truck.

Last year, jurors acquitted Sandidge of assault and obstruction, but could not agree whether he was resisting arrest. City prosecutors eventually dropped that final charge.

Belinda Sandidge said the episode has scarred her son. "My son is not right since then," she said. "He's afraid of police."

Police confirmed Friday that an internal investigation was opened into the officers' conduct, but the results were not available. Abraham said he believed the officers were ordered to undergo additional training.

The NAACP has asked the city to file criminal charges against the officers, though Bible conceded that that is unlikely to happen. If it doesn't, the NAACP plans to file a citizens complaint on its own.

"This was not simply police misconduct ," Bible said. "This was assault and assault is a crime."

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Seattle Post Intelligencer - U03 August 2007

Citizens panel to track police

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Seattle Post Intelligencer - U
03 August 2007