Department of Justice hears police complaints

Some were relieved and others convinced nothing would change in the Seattle Police Department. But after U.S. Department of Justice officials interviewed Seattle-area residents Saturday about alleged abuses by police, several people said they felt encouraged their complaints had been heard.

"It felt good to get it off my chest. It felt good to talk to somebody outside the local system," said Rick Dale, a Metro bus driver who contends his 14-year-old son was unjustly roughed up by Seattle police last year.

Roughly 30 to 40 people, including Dale, talked to Justice Department officials during closed-door meetings Saturday morning at El Centro de la Raza, the Latino civil-rights organization headquartered on Beacon Hill. Members of the media and the general public were prohibited from listening to the interviews.

The Justice Department is investigating whether Seattle police have engaged in a pattern of unnecessary force and biased policing.

"For the most part, the sense I get is that people are satisfied in being able to tell their story," said Estela Ortega, El Centro's executive director.

Ortega was optimistic for another reason.

When Police Chief John Diaz suspended and demoted Detective Shandy Cobane last week for telling a robbery suspect he would beat the "Mexican piss" out of him, Diaz said in the future he would fire officers who used racial epithets.

"We feel this is a huge step forward," said Ortega, whose group has been critical of perceived police misbehavior. She said she was particularly heartened by a conversation she had with Sgt. Rich O'Neill, president of the Seattle Police Officers' Guild.

Instead of his often combative tone, O'Neill struck a more conciliatory note in public comments he made after Diaz announced Cobane's 30-day unpaid suspension on Thursday.

Ortega said O'Neill told her he "absolutely" supported Diaz's tough stance on officers using racial slurs.

"We think this is the right step, if you will, in addressing racism in the police force," she said.

As part of his discipline, Cobane agreed to meet with Latino groups to mend relations. According to Ortega, one of her staff said about meeting with Cobane: "We'll kill him with love."

A handful of people who emerged from Justice Department interviews Saturday shared parts of their stories with reporters.

One woman, who declined to give her name, said police had improperly arrested her son, a felon who was illegally carrying a handgun. "The whole police department is guilty of racial profiling," she said. "I don't think it's getting any better."

Dale, the bus driver, came to tell the story of how his son Jeffrey was mistaken for a burglar in the Northgate area. A police officer hit his son, who then weighed 95 pounds, Dale said, with a forearm to the head and handcuffed him. "This incident's been eating at me," Dale said, but he felt filing a complaint with Seattle police would have been futile.

Justice Department officials "listened really well and wrote stuff down," Jeffrey Dale said.

Bob Young: 206-464-2174 or byoung@seattletimes.com

This report includes information from Times archives.