Seattle Monitoring Survey Findings and Recommendations from Monitoring Survey September 2013

Purpose of research 2 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research  Commissioned by federal monitoring team to: o Evaluate community perceptions of Seattle police o Gauge prevalence of community-police interactions o Understand the nature of those interactions  Focus on measuring incidence of racial profiling, excessive force  Input from CPC, DOJ, City of Seattle on survey design, methodology

Methodology 3 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research  900 live interviews—45% cell phone, 55% landline o 61% of respondents were cell only (39%) or cell mostly (22%), matching latest federal findings on population  Survey conducted among adults 18+ living in Seattle  Interviews apportioned geographically by police precinct as well as race, age other demographics to match city population  Margin of error: +3.3% at 95% confidence level

KEY FINDINGS

Key Findings 5 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research  The 60% majority of Seattleites that approve of the job the Seattle Police Department (SPD) is doing hides underlying problems.  Only 35% of people agree SPD treats people of all races equally o One-third or less believe the police treat African-Americans (32%), Latinos (33%), and Native Americans (33%) the same as others o Less than half of Seattleites believe the police treat young people (45%), homeless people (25%) the same as others  45% of Seattleites say SPD uses excessive force very/somewhat often, including 70% of African-Americans and 62% of Latinos

Key Findings 6 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research  African-Americans and Latinos who interact with police have worse experience with the police than people of other races. o Only 44% approve of the way their most serious interaction was handled, compared with 77% of whites o Fully 26% say the officer used physical force other than handcuffing, compared to 5% of whites  These groups’ perceived/actual mistreatment leads to negative views of SPD, so improving officer-citizen contacts is a must to improve community relations. When a friend, family member, or neighbor has a bad interaction, it bleeds into overall perceptions.  Future research is needed to reassess the problem and delve deeper into its nature (qualitative, quantitative)

OVERALL ATTITUDES TOWARDS SPD

Majority have Positive Opinion of SPD A majority of Seattleites approve of the job SPD does, and it gets strong marks on keeping people safe, “serving my neighborhood,” and quickly solving crimes and arresting criminals 8 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research

SPD - WSP With that said, SPD’s ratings are lower than the Washington State Patrol’s. This is due to sharply lower marks among Latinos and African- Americans for SPD. Total Approval Racial differences cause SPD to be rated lower than Washington State Patrol

© Anzalone Liszt Grove Research In addition to being less satisfied overall than other groups, Latinos and African-Americans are much more intensely negative than other groups towards SPD. Latinos, African-Americans more intensely negative 10 Do you approve or disapprove of the job the Seattle Police Department is doing?

PERCEPTIONS OF SPD DISCRIMINATION

Few think SPD treats all people equally Only about one third of people think SPD treats people of all races equally. Regression analysis shows this to be the most predictive factor of people’s overall approval of SPD. Few think SPD treats Latinos, African-Americans, Native Americans, and the homeless equal. 12 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research

African-Americans, Latinos perceive the highest levels of discrimination among SPD 13 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research The Seattle Police treat people of all races and ethnicities equally

Results more mixed on young, Asian-Americans A slim majority of people thinks the department treats Asian-Americans the same as everyone else, and a plurality thinks SPD treats young people the same as others. 14 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research

PERCEIVED HARASSMENT EXCESSIVE FORCE

© Anzalone Liszt Grove Research Widespread perception of excessive force Almost half (45%) of people believe SPD uses excessive force very often or somewhat often. This includes majorities among African- Americans and Latinos. 16 How often you think Seattle Police Department officers use excessive physical force – very often, somewhat often, not that often, or almost never?

Excessive force rates higher than other problems After excessive force (45%) about a third of citizens say they are verbally abused, stopped without good reason. These rates jumped to 45-63% with minorities. 17 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research

WHO IS GETTING STOPPED BY THE POLICE?

Almost 25% of Seattleites interacted with police last year The number of interactions jumps to 40% when a family member or friend is included. The majority of these interactions are traffic-related. 19 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research Have you, or a close family member, friend or neighbor, interacted with the Seattle Police Department in the last year? Of those who interacted with police

Traffic interactions vary heavily by race Whites are the least likely to have experienced a traffic stop. African- Americans have been stopped three times as much, and Asian-Americans and Latinos have been stopped two times as much. 20 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research % reporting traffic related police interaction

Non-traffic interactions are even more racially dependent African-Americans and Latinos are about three times more likely than whites to have experienced a non-traffic stop in Seattle. 21 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research % reporting non-traffic related police interaction

Non-traffic stops vary by age, precinct Non-traffic stops happen slightly more often to young people and people in the South/Southwest precincts. 22 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research % reporting non-traffic related police interaction

Type of non-traffic interactions These non-traffic-stop interactions are about evenly split between being people being stopped walking in their neighborhood, being stopped walking outside their neighborhood, and being involuntarily questioned by police 23 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research Yes, interacted with police (self) – Among people who had non-traffic interaction

EXPERIENCES OF THOSE STOPPED

Big differences in traffic, non-traffic interactions A majority of people (52%) who experienced a non-traffic-related stop disapprove of their interaction, while a majority who experience a traffic- related stop approve (67%). Traffic stops make up the majority of overall stops. 25 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research Overall, do you approve or disapprove of how the Seattle Police handled your situation?

People in non-traffic stops more likely to report problems 26 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research  People in non-traffic stops were more likely to say police: o Were verbally abusive (37% non-traffic / 15% traffic) o Used physical force other than handcuffing (19% non-traffic / 9% traffic) o Threatened to use physical force (26% non-traffic / 10% traffic)  And were less likely to say the police: o Answered all their questions (48% non-traffic / 73% traffic) o Stopped them for a reasonable amount of time (50% non-traffic / 68% traffic) o Explained the reason they were stopped (47% non-traffic / 75% traffic) o Treated them respectfully (54% non-traffic / 76% traffic)

Latinos, African-Americans had more negative interactions These groups had far more negative interactions than whites, regardless of whether they were stopped for traffic or non-traffic reasons. 27 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research Overall, do you approve or disapprove of how the Seattle Police handled your situation?

African-Americans + Latinos more likely to report problems 28 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research African-Americans and Latinos are more likely than whites to say that the police:  Were verbally abusive (31% AA + Latino / 3% white)  Used physical force other than handcuffing (26% AA + Latino / 5% white)  Threatened to use physical force other than handcuffing (30% AA + Latino / 3% white) They also are less likely to say the police:  Answered all their questions (56% AA + Latino / 77% white)  Stopped them for a reasonable amount of time (48% AA + Latino / 76% white)  Treated them respectfully (54% AA + Latino / 81% white)

Formal complaint filings a small percentage of negative interactions Few of the people who had negative experiences with the SPD filed a complaint, so these do not fully capture the negative experiences of people. Even among people who strongly disapproved with their interaction, only about a third filed a formal complaint. 29 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research % of formal complaints among those who had a police interaction

EFFECTS OF DISPARITIES IN TREATMENT

Negative experiences reverberate around community 31 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research  38% of people say they get a large amount of information about SPD by word of mouth, including 54% of African-Americans.  Most whites approve of how SPD treated someone they know who interacted with SPD (65% approve / 30% disapprove), but Latinos and African-Americans broadly disapprove of how SPD treated someone they know (30% approve / 65% disapprove).  Negative treatment has a “multiplier effect,” where negative experiences with SPD affect much more than just the person who had the experience.

“Multiplier effect” for bad interactions People of all racial groups are 3-15 times more likely to know someone who says they’ve experienced racially different treatment or excessive force than to have experienced it themselves 32 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research All Adults African- Americans LatinosWhites Asian- Americans Experienced racially different treatment (self) 4%16%17%1%5% Experienced racially different treatment (someone you know) 21%36%41%17%16% Experienced excessive force (self) 1%5%9%0% Experienced excessive force (someone you know) 8%17%28%5%

SUMMARY

Summary 34 © Anzalone Liszt Grove Research  The overall job rating of SPD hides underlying issues.  Few people think SPD treats people of all races equally, and many people think the police uses excessive force at least somewhat often  This is having a negative effect on SPD and dragging overall opinions of it down  Future research should attempt to understand community- police interactions better—good and bad interactions—and figure out what separates one from the other