Report: 3 Seattle officers used excessive force at protests

SEATTLE (AP) — An independent agency tasked with investigating Seattle police misconduct has found that three officers used excessive force during this summer's protests.

One officer slammed a protester's head to the ground twice. Another punched a demonstrator a half dozen times. A third officer put his knee on the necks of two looting suspects.

The Seattle police chief has not yet made decisions about whether to discipline the officers.

The Office of Police Accountability continues to investigation the 19,000 complaints it has received since protests began in May. The office has completed about a dozen cases, with sustained findings in about half of them.

 The officers were not named in the reports because the union contract with the city prohibits disclosing their identities.

Also under the contract, when the Office of Police Accountability believes an officer committed a crime, the office sends the case to the Seattle Police Department and asks for a criminal investigation — a system that the office’s director, Andrew Myerberg, said is flawed because of a possible conflict of interest.

Read more at: https://apnews.com/article/us-news-seattle-police-racial-injustice-police-reform-3f6aa490073ed9305a157e4aebd7eea9