Make changes now

Editor, The Times:

It should come as no surprise that Seattle Police Chief John Diaz no longer looks upon the Department of Justice investigation as a “free audit,” and now that the findings are out, has decided the best approach is to engage in denial. [“DOJ findings put mayor on hot seat,” page one, Dec. 18.]

A department that has at times been held hostage by the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild and their law firm is disappointingly slow in recognizing that the time for wholesale change has finally arrived.

Organizations that opt to hold themselves accountable and effectively exclude outside oversight should not be surprised when their lack of accountability finally reaches a tipping point, as it did with the killing of John T. Williams in August of last year. While the citizens of Seattle deserve to have the most professional and highly trained police force possible, the people who truly deserve this are the brave men and women who put on the uniform of the Seattle Police Department every day.

If that requires changes in the command structure of the SPD or finally dealing with the 1 percent of the force that creates the majority of the citizen complaints, the opportunity to do that is now.

— Tom Nelson, Woodinville

Police should be peers

One of the issues not addressed by the recent investigations of the Seattle Police Department violations is the fact that a majority of SPD officers do not live in Seattle.

When we are judged in a court of law, it is by a jury of our peers. Why should we not be policed by a force of our peers?

To think that an officer from Bellevue can relate to a black female from Rainier Avenue South is more than a stretch.

Please face the root cause of SPD violence and allow our citizens to be guarded by our peers.

— Gregg F. Haughian, Seattle