Overview

• U.S. District Judge James Robart on Sept. 3 terminated the 2012 consent decree and dismissed the case, returning full authority over policing to the City of Seattle.
• The court previously lifted most oversight in 2023, with full termination enabled by a February City Council law setting crowd-management guidelines, including limits on blast balls.
• The Justice Department lauded Seattle’s “sustained substantial compliance,” with Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon and Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller praising the department’s transformation.
• Reforms overhauled use-of-force policies, crisis intervention, stops and detentions, supervision and accountability, de-escalation training, body-worn cameras, and protest response.
• City figures cite more than $127 million invested in reform efforts and an estimated 35% drop in annual reported use-of-force incidents compared with the early years of the decree.