Olympia reports a decline in police use of force, but an uptick in juvenile arrests

The police department should continue to invest in training and resources that assist in identifying people in crisis and the de-escalation efforts that are most effective with people who are impaired due to mental illness or substance abuse.”

Olympia Police Auditor Tara Parker

The Olympia Police Department saw a reduction in overall use of force incidents in 2023, but noted an increase in juvenile arrest trend, police auditor Tara Parker reported to the city council on Tuesday.

Despite a 5% rise in calls for service to 56,173, arrests dropped 7% to 3,108 compared to the previous year. In addition, use of force incidents fell 24% to 52 cases and only 1.6% of all arrests involved a use of force.

But the report also showed a total of 72 arrests of juveniles aged 13-17, representing a 95% increase compared to 2022. Nine of those arrests involved a use of force.

"This disturbing trend in rising interactions between juveniles and law enforcement is being closely monitored by the [Olympia Police Department] and the auditor and we seek ways to address it, including enhanced youth de-escalation training," stated the report.

Parker mentioned that she had discussed this issue with the police department throughout the year after identifying it as a key trend.

She told the city council that the OPD "fully embraced" the need to find appropriate training resources to help officers learn specialized de-escalation techniques when interacting with minors.

Answering Councilmember Gilman's inquiry if the arrests represented distinct individuals or repeat offenders, Parker confirmed most juvenile use of force cases in 2023 did not involve just a small number of youths being arrested repeatedly.

OPD Deputy Chief Sam Costello added that for the most part, the arrested juveniles were not consistently part of the local Olympia community, with many originating from other areas.

Social Justice and Equity Commission chair Genevieve Chan would like to see additional information on juvenile arrests included in future reports. This would cover demographics like race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, substance abuse history, mental health status, disabilities, and housing situation, to determine if compounding factors are at play.

Other trends

Parker said that the majority of incidents involved individuals who were incapacitated by mental illness, substance abuse, or both.

She shared that the specific percentage in 2022 was 72%. It increased in 2023, which was 83%.

"I think it's so important to get a really good sense of what is the population generally that is not amenable to the officers' directives to allow for a peaceful arrest. That is an important data to focus on," Parker explained.

The police auditor also highlighted tracking data on individuals who are unhoused during use-of-force incidents to gain more insight. She said at least 33% or more were experiencing homelessness.

"This trend indicates that the police department should continue to invest in training and resources that assist in identifying people in crisis and the de-escalation efforts that are most effective with people who are impaired due to mental illness or substance abuse," Parker stated in her report.

At the city council presentation, Parker mentioned that there were 20 completed investigations on misconduct complaints against OPD employees – 17 came from the community and three were initiated internally by the department.

"I determined that they all met the department standards. There were no sustained complaints of excessive force or civil rights violations," Parker said. She noted there were three sustained complaints of unprofessional conduct last year. The auditor added that these were discrete incidents generally involving unprofessional verbal conduct by officers. Each officer who received a sustained complaint participated in documented counseling sessions.

Body-word cameras

Parker noted that 2023 marked the first complete year of the OPD utilizing the body-worn camera. She believed that they may be contributing to improved trends in the data. "Although it is impossible to know whether individuals in the community and officers were more motivated to comply with laws and policies knowing they were being video recorded, the data above suggests that is the case."

The police auditor saw body-worn camera videos significantly improve their ability to conduct comprehensive oversight. She said the footage allowed scrutinizing the "totality" of officer conduct during incidents. This included being able to observe tone of voice, body language, and conversations between officers as well as with community members. Parker noted viewing these complete interactions enabled determining if any unprofessional, biased, or discriminatory behavior took place.

To enhance transparency, Parker advised changing the current policy which allows officers to deactivate the audio function when speaking to one another about operational matters.

She renewed her recommendation that the policy be amended to keep audio recording even during rare instances of officer-to-officer communication. She believes there is potential value in understanding officers' perceptions as incidents unfold and sees no public records or safety reason for deactivating audio in most situations.

Parker also recommended implementing a mechanism for more timely reporting of the auditor's determinations from critical incidents to the public, as opposed to waiting until the next annual report.

The police auditor advised looking at ways to systematically track and gather data on instances where the Crisis Response Unit (CRU) is involved in use-of-force incidents. Recording this information could provide valuable insights into how CRU can play a role in de-escalating such situations.