-Hello, I'm Seattle Channel host Brian Callanan.
Over the past several months,
Seattle's Community Police Commission
has been engaged in a national search
for their executive director.
The Community Police Commission has identified
three finalists -- Ashley Gordon Hanks,
who recently served in a civil oversight role
of deputy director,
Professional Standards and Accountability,
for the city of Henderson, Nevada, Police Department;
Aeiramique Glass Blake, who served as chair
of the Chief of Police Board of Advisors
and is currently a program manager analyst
for the Los Angeles County Office of Diversion and Reentry;
Cali Ellis, who currently serves
as the interim executive director
of the Community Police Commission
and who has been serving as the CPC policy director.
The purpose of this Seattle Channel program
is to provide the community with an opportunity
to learn more about these candidates.
This event is not part of the formal interview process,
and participation in this event by the finalists is voluntary.
I am pleased to be having conversations
with Aeiramique Glass Blake and Cali Ellis.
Unfortunately, Ashley Gordon Hanks
was not available.
I will be asking each of the finalists
six standard questions that were developed
based with input from past public-safety-candidate forums,
police accountability stakeholders,
and CPC commissioners.
To facilitate the conversation,
I may ask a follow-up or clarifying question.
We'll begin with Aeiramique Glass Blake.
Aeiramique, thank you for joining us.
-Thank you for having me.
-And let's get right to it here.
The first question -- From your perspective,
what is the central or core work
of the Community Police Commission
within the city's established police accountability framework?
As the executive director,
what part of this work interests you the most?
-Thank you for the question.
So I truly believe the core part of this position
as the executive director would be to ensure
that the community voice is heard.
I believe that the CPP's position and job
is to really provide
the community perspective recommendations on policy,
practice, procedure, and also initiatives
and push from an advocacy perspective and point of view
what everyday community members and public
are dealing with when pertaining to police officers.
How are policing in Seattle
being impacted within the community, right,
and how are community members being impacted by policing?
Is our policing equitable? Is our policing fair, just?
Are we holding police officers accountable?
And really diving in
to some of the deep-rooted historical issues within Seattle
and the breakdown of community and policing.
So I truly believe, as a whole, the CPP
is to really be that community voice working
and bringing it back to the other
justice accountability partners,
bringing it back to City Council,
bringing it back to the mayor's office
and saying, "This is what we're seeing,
this is what we're feeling,
these are the policies that we see work other places.
These are the policies we know would work
in our particular communities,
and this is what we want to see."
And so I believe the larger voice of the commission
would be my ultimate job as the executive director
to push those voices forward
and making sure that community have a voice at the table.
-Thank you very much for that. I'll move to question two here.
How can the executive director
and Community Police Commission staff
best support the work of the CPC co-chairs
and commissioners to fulfill the purpose of the CPC?
If you could, share one or two specific strategies
that you would implement as executive director.
-Yes, thank you.
So I'm really excited
about the ordinance change around
making sure commissioners are going to be getting stipends,
but we have to be real.
The commission is volunteer
and folks are living
their everyday lives and going to work.
And also as a commissioner and as a person who advises
a lot of law enforcement and city officials
in paid and nonpaid positions,
I understand the commitment that that takes, right?
And so when folks are living their everyday lives
and not, you know, engaging in the commission,
they need somebody that they can trust
that is sitting at the tables,
communicating what is being discussed
in our commission meetings,
communicating what is being discussed in our town halls
and community engagement meetings,
and someone who is going to advocate on their behalf,
someone that even when no one else is looking,
has the integrity and the ability to build relationships,
but also hold folks accountable.
And so that really, you know, I like to say the X factor.
Some people have it, some people don't.
And I believe I bring the X factor
and I can't really put it in just a strategy that I have.
I'm trained and a consultant
for the National Conflict Resolution Center,
so I have training in mediation.
I have training in deescalation.
I have training -- every training that you can think of.
But I really take a restorative approach.
Within restorative practices.
We talk a lot about restorative justice
and transformative justice,
and that's the approach that I take.
We need to recognize the harm that has been done.
And so I really believe that utilizing community town halls,
like I said, community engagement,
um, being able --
someone who has the experience of, um, working --
and I'll say this, I talk about this a lot --
I've been, you know, arrested more times than I can count.
I've been brutalized by the police
and had to get out of jail and come back
and work with the police and show up
and sit on boards with the D.A. and work through --
work even after those experiences.
And so, I think, beyond just a framework,
a flexible framework and strategy
is someone who knows how to write policy,
how to push and advocate for policy,
but also knows the impacts of the implementation
of implementing that policy
and knows that from a community perspective
and a lived-experience perspective, right?
And so I think it's the balance
of making sure voices in the commission
and the co-chairs' voices are at the table
even when they're not there,
but also making sure that the executive director themselves
is a person who is seen as a community advocate
and a person that also knows how to do
the intergovernmental and policy work as well.
-Thank you for that. I'll move to our next question here.
How do you identify communities and populations
whose voice is important to lift up
and hear from in the police accountability space?
How, specifically, would you leverage
your personal involvement and staff resources
to listen to and amplify
the voices of these communities and populations?
-Thank you for the question.
So I truly believe part of the breakdown
in police accountability
is that it has become a career for a lot of folks.
And when I say that, there are a lot of --
I even know many who are a part of the community --
police accountability community, right?
And they kind of move around city to city doing this work.
And I think there's partially distrust in that
because folks are disconnected from the community
and don't always amplify the voices of the community, right?
And so for me, I think being a Black woman,
being a person who has experienced harm from policing
and the lack of accountability and the lack of policy,
I'm able to really connect with community members
and expressing not just my story
but listening to theirs, right?
And so the strategy of making sure --
I mean, historically, we know Black, brown,
Indigenous, BIPOC, Pacific Islander,
Asian communities have been most impacted by policing, right?
And particularly Black communities.
We've seen that prior to George Floyd,
and obviously George Floyd amplified
the deep-rooted issues that we all knew,
especially those that were already impacted.
Um, George Floyd and his murder
only amplified those things, right?
And so people -- I've been doing this work for 15 years now,
but people -- many people are new to this work, right?
And so I think making sure
that the community know what the CPP does,
making sure that the community knows
how the Seattle accountability system actually works,
making sure that people know how each pillar --
and I call the community accountability partners
a pillar, right, because if each one of us
are doing what we were created to do well,
the community will feel like they have a voice
and feel like those policies and practices are being pushed.
And we do that through looking historically at the data,
looking historically at what the data proves
that we already know,
who has been most impacted by police violence,
who is not seeing the justice and accountability
in their particular communities,
and then bringing those voices, through town halls,
through social media, through all of the different forums
that we should be and could be having,
and making sure that we're working as a commission
to push those lived experiences forward.
-Okay, thank you. I'll move on to our next question here.
Please share with us a situation where you were instrumental
in amplifying the voice of community
to influence a specific policy or practice.
So, want to make sure we hear about amplifying the voice
and also the impact of that.
What were you able to influence? Let's talk about it, please.
-Thank you so much.
So I am an advisor
for the San Diego City Attorney's Office,
and I'm also an advisor for and the chairwoman of
the San Diego Chief of Police Board of Advisors.
And so, within that work -- and I don't have time to name
all of the things that I'm a part of --
but within that work there has been multiple things
that I have spearheaded and done the front-facing work,
but also the behind-the-scenes work,
and one of those things is the choke hold.
For many years prior to, again, George Floyd
and many of the other deaths
that have happened by the hands of policing
and the lack of accountability,
we were working on getting the choke hold,
the carotid restraint, banned within San Diego.
That took town halls,
that took me going into the chief's office,
working with the city attorney, looking at the data.
How many lawsuits are we getting?
I understand that, you know, different leaders
in the political realm have value
or see value in different things, right?
And so sometimes I have to speak numbers.
When the city is losing a significant amount of money,
unfortunately they may not always care
about the lives of folks,
but they care about losing money, right?
And so I will go into spaces -- and, fortunately,
our city attorney does care about lives of people,
and so looking at the numbers -- How much are we being sued?
How much are -- or even folks complaining around
the carotid restraint,
looking at the body-worn camera footage --
How is that impacting the community, right?
Holding town halls and bringing this back to the chief,
talking about, is this something that is overutilized?
Is this something that we can effectively arrest folks
in a humane way without the carotid restraint, right?
And so that took years of conversation,
and then we were able to ultimately
get that policy change.
Also putting Measure B here in San Diego on the ballot,
Measure B was getting our CRB, the Community Review Board,
changed into an independent commission on police practice.
I helped to draft and push that.
It failed the first time around, and we came back
and we organized the communities.
We spoke to community leaders.
We got community organizations involved.
We started a social media campaign.
We created a policy and even talked with law enforcement.
Me being, you know, the chairwoman,
I was able to be a liaison in the intergovernmental work
that needed to be done in that area.
And we ultimately got the City Council
to support Measure B and then ultimately get it
on the larger ballot during the election.
The community, from the community campaigns that we did,
they voted and passed
the independent commission on police practice.
And then not only that,
but being a huge part of making sure, after we pass policy,
that we're implementing it the way in which the people voted,
because many times we push and pass policy,
but the implementation is done incorrectly
and there's no oversight
in a way that really is reflective
of why the community voted for it in the first place.
And so I believe in being proactive
so we don't always have to be reactive.
And so those are some of the things,
just a few of the things that I've I've helped lead
and get passed.
-Thank you for those examples.
Our next question here is a triple-header.
So, the CPC executive director is accountable for
leading and managing staff to fulfill the CPC's purpose.
We'd like to gain some more insight
into your administrative management in three ways --
How do you prioritize and delegate work
within the office,
support employee morale and engagement,
and grow and develop staff?
Let's tackle that first one briefly if we could.
How do you prioritize and delegate work within the office?
-Definitely.
So I believe in making sure that we revisit our goals,
revisit the goals that the community, the commission,
City Council, mayor,
and the goals with our accountability partners, right?
I currently work for L.A. County,
where I manage a significant amount of directors
and program managers and consulting staff, right?
And one of the things that I do
is really creating a strategic plan, a goal,
and then checking in monthly on where we're at,
creating short, mid- and long-term goals
and making sure that we're not just checking the box
but those things are being implemented and are effective.
I truly believe in staff development,
professional development,
and so really tapping into, what are the strengths of my staff,
who does what well?
Delegating in the areas of their strengths,
really encouraging them to be leaders
within whatever they are taking ownership of
and then coming back together to see what's working,
what's not working, and coming back to the table, right?
Really -- I provide a lot of technical assistance,
and so I really, truly believe in,
as I've been in this work a really long time,
I'm able to answer questions and rapidly respond
to the things that my staff bring to me.
I think you're trying to say --
-Yeah, I wanted to make sure that I jumped in here
because it sounded like you were going into the next question,
which I'd like you to answer --
supporting employee morale and engagement.
Let's talk about that, please. How do you do that?
-Yes, so, sorry I went ahead.
But, you know, I think, like I said, really encouraging
and listening to our staffs
and the commissioners' stories, why they got into this work,
building off of their strengths,
building off of their background,
what excites them, what is their passion,
making sure that I am supporting
and even contributing to their personal development,
because when you're doing well personally,
you're doing well professionally, right?
And how does that show up?
Making sure I'm checking in with them
when something happens within the community.
How has that impacted them, right?
Taking that restorative approach.
And so when we talk about morale, right,
as a team, we need to engage together.
I don't just give feedback to my team.
I also ask my team to give feedback to me.
How could I have helped you better this month, this week?
What's working? What's not working?
What would you like to see, right?
It goes both ways.
But I also believe in strong accountability.
I will say anyone who works with me knows
that I hold myself to a high standard
and high expectations,
and I hold my team to that as well.
And it's not just about, just as we're talking around policing,
it's not about punishment, it's about accountability
and getting our officers to look --
and the system as a whole -- to look at it differently.
I bring that into the everyday work.
So I'm not about punishing folks.
I'm about holding folks accountable to make them better
and so that we can produce better work for our community.
Um, and then coaching around,
how do we engage with the community,
how are we -- how are we debriefing around
the impact of this heavy work that we are doing?
So those are just a few of the strategies
that I utilize.
-Thank you, and I think you may have touched on this already,
but any final thoughts about growing and developing staff?
That's the final piece of this question.
-I just think there's so many -- there's so many conferences
and so many different resources out there,
and so making sure, as a person who's been doing this work
a really long time,
that my staff have the same information I have
and making sure they're connected to those resources.
So those are some of the things that I'm strong on.
Also, how to receive feedback, you know,
and how do we do that as a team to move forward?
So that's all I'll say about that.
-Great. Thank you for that comprehensive answer there.
I'll move on to our last question here.
What do you see as critical
in the CPC executive director's relationship
with the inspector general
and the director of the Office of Police Accountability?
How would you facilitate a community conversation
about the work of police accountability partners?
-So I'll start with that first half.
Um, you know,
many of the accountability systems in other cities
do not have a three-part accountability system.
And so I was asked the question
during my interview process around,
did I believe that the commission --
the Community Police Commission --
should have more ability and power within oversight?
And I said yes, right?
In my experience, we've had to fight to get teeth
in a lot of these accountability commissions
and departments.
But the thing that encourages me about Seattle
is that there is a three-part accountability system, right,
and so there's accountability that should be full circle.
And as I said before, if every accountability partner
is standing as a strong pillar,
then we should see this work moving forward.
I believe that having a relationship --
and not just a relationship,
but all of us having the same information,
communicating the same information,
going back after our meetings
and talking to our different departments
about what's happening,
being able to really get the community
to understand what each individual office does
and is responsible for.
I think that's where frustration comes from many times
is that people don't have a clear understanding
on who's responsible for what.
And I believe, as the executive director,
and as the Community Police Commission,
it is our job to make sure that community understands --
clearly understands -- what each partner does and why
and how it works, right?
And if we want to change something,
then we have to come back to the table and organize
and get that change.
But as it stands right now, this is how it flows and works,
and I think if community had a clearer understanding of that,
some of that frustration we should start to see decrease
because they have a direct line of communication
with the partners
and they understand what each partner does.
-Got it.
And I know you were touching on this,
but this idea of facilitating that community conversation
about the work of police accountability partners,
how would you do something like that?
-So, something that I do in San Diego and in L.A. County --
So in L.A. County, I'm responsible for
helping to move --
there was legislation passed on the state level
and then on the county level to move the juvenile justice system
into a new Department of Youth Development,
and I am in the diversion division.
So as it stands, I have to have really difficult conversations
with law enforcement
who have historically done things,
and programs lived within law enforcement
that now will live within community
in this new department, right?
And so some of the things that I do in San Diego
is with the National Conflict Resolution Center
and then myself as a consultant is have courageous conversations
when there's a breakdown in communication,
when there is a new policy or initiative
that is being proposed.
I go into the community and many times
I've brought law enforcement together with community
and facilitated what I like to say "circles,"
and we call them restorative circles in --
that was really brought from the Indigenous community
and what we utilize as restorative practices, right?
And so we have those courageous conversations.
We have that dialogue really giving understanding
on what's happening, what is taking place,
what is being proposed.
Also, you know, as you said, what the different
community accountability partners actually do.
And so that's what I would do
is to have those courageous conversations.
Again, like I said, utilize social media,
utilize other public forums to have those dialogues.
But it really takes building one-on-one relationships
to even get to the point where I can facilitate
those larger conversations
so that we can address some of the harms
that are done in communities.
-Thank you very much for that.
We're going to take a brief break right now,
and we will return with the next candidate for executive director
of the Community Police Commission.
♪♪
And with us now, Cali Ellis.
Cali, thank you very much for joining us.
-Thank you. -Let's jump right into it here.
From your perspective, what is the central or core work
of the Community Police Commission
within the city's established police accountability framework?
As the executive director,
what part of this work interests you the most?
-Well, thank you for that question.
I see the core work of the CPC
as amplifying the voices of all the communities in Seattle
and being responsive to community needs
and concerns about policing.
Our goal is to facilitate a community connection
to constitutional policing.
That's very much written into the ordinance
and something that we're very close to.
So this does include oversight of instances of police violence
towards community members,
but the ordinance is clear for the CPC
that it is not the only role of the CPC.
The ordinance says the role
is to engage the community in outreach
to obtain the perspectives of community members
and SPD employees on police and community relations --
this is language from the ordinance --
as well as SPD policies and practices
and also the accountability system.
So my perspective is that
while the police must be accountable for their work,
given their unique and extraordinary legal powers,
the community is also concerned about violence
that makes people less safe.
In SPD's 2022, end-of-year crime report,
there were violent crimes have increased,
and there were 52 homicides that year.
This was a 24% increase over 2021.
Just last night I was at a Zoom community meeting
of the South Precinct Advisory Council,
which was attended by at least 100 people.
And our neighbors in Rainier Beach, which is the area
the South Precinct Advisory Council covers,
are alarmed about recent gun violence
that's hurt volunteers and community members
in the Safeway parking lot.
The role of the CPC is very much
to listen to those community members,
to all community members, and engage with them
about their concerns about violence in their community,
even if it's not necessarily at the hands of police.
-Thank you.
And I think you have touched on this
at least a little bit, but I just wanted to follow up --
As executive director,
what part of this work interests you the most?
-Yes, so this is very important work to me
because I've been living in Seattle
for the past six years.
I've been living in community and seeing very many changes
that have happened during that time.
So I was here during the CHOP and CHAZ period,
I was here before that, and I'm still here now.
Even when I was working in a different part of the state,
I was always living in my community in Seattle,
and this is something that I've wanted to come back
and give my time and expertise to as executive director.
This is a very important time for the community,
for the police, for the nation,
and this is something that I really want to be part of.
-Thank you. I'll move on to our next question here.
How can the executive director
and the Community Police Commission staff
best support the work of the CPC co-chairs
and commissioners to fulfill the purpose of the CPC?
If you could, share one or two specific strategies
that you would implement as executive director.
-Sure. Thank you for that.
So the role of the CPC executive Director
is to support the goals of the CPC co-chairs
and the commission itself.
If you look through the history of the CPC,
those goals have changed over time.
The people, the composition of the CPC changes.
And so the role of the executive director
is to make sure that we can facilitate through staff
and through the work that we do
what these folks, the commissioners who are
community members and volunteers,
want to get out of a given time.
So it's very important to know that the CPC setup
is unique nationwide.
It's very different from other
accountability systems in other places.
And the most recent revision to the accountability ordinance,
which just went through last month,
really clarified oversight of the executive director
of the Community Police Commission by these volunteers,
the CPC co-chairs and CPC commissioners.
So it clarifies this by bringing in
the City Department of Human Resources.
Again, this is a very unique structure within the city,
but it's something that really works to bring
the voices of community itself to this process.
So my first strategy, or one strategy
that I implemented as interim executive director
to help the CPC fulfill its purpose and its mission
was to help commissioners reengage with each other.
So, as you know, many organizations
were really set back on their heels by COVID.
The CPC in prior times used to be a very active,
in-person organization where people would meet each other
and talk -- community members, commissioners, police officers,
everybody would get together in person
to make connections and understand
and work through what their priorities and goals were.
And because of COVID, that kind of fell away.
Currently, the CPC usually meets online,
on Zoom calls or other types of that kind of technology.
However, it's really important to engage with people
to make that connection.
So one of the things that I did
as interim executive director was --
This year we had a lot of new commissioners.
We had five coming in at the same time.
So I set up an in-person orientation -- in-person --
so they could all meet each other
while they were learning about the accountability system.
So this included representatives
from the Seattle Police Department.
Chief Diaz was there,
the director of the Office of Police Accountability was there,
the inspector general was there,
as well as representatives from the city attorney's office
to talk about things that are important to the commission,
such as the Open Public Meetings Act of Washington
or the Public Records Act for the work that they're doing.
So that's a really good example of one kind of strategy
that I'm taking to help,
as in the role of interim executive director,
to help the commissioners and the co-chairs
achieve their goals.
-Thank you very much.
I'll move on to the next question here.
How do you identify communities and populations
whose voice is important to lift up
and hear from in the police accountability space?
How, specifically, would you leverage
your personal involvement and staff resources
to listen to and amplify
the voices of these community populations?
If you would.
-Yes. Thank you.
This is important because, again,
our governing ordinance is very clear
about what the intention was
for setting up the Community Police Commission,
as well as our partners in OIG and OPA.
So the ordinance states that the CPC is intended
to serve as a community voice for the entire city
and should include voices from all corners of the city
so that no geographic area is left out.
And that's important because
Seattle is such a very diverse city.
About 14% of the population of Seattle is Asian,
and that includes Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Japanese,
Korean, a large number of folks, as well as 8% of the population
that's Black or African-American,
which includes important immigrant communities.
9% is Hispanic or Latino,
and just over 1% are American Indian
or Alaska Native or Native Hawaiian
or other Pacific Islander.
So that gives you a sense of the diversity of Seattle.
And when I read the ordinance, that's what I'm thinking.
This is the the wide variety of populations
that we are intended to serve.
But at the same time, not all communities
experience policing in the same way.
So in terms of how I would specifically leverage
involvement and staff resources
of the CPC to capture and amplify these voices,
in 2023 alone,
in my current role as interim executive director,
we have significantly expanded the outreach of the CPC
through our community engagement staff
to marginalized communities.
Our staff is an award-winning staff.
They've won national and local awards
that really show the depth
of their commitment to the communities.
Staff is actively engaged in
multiple community events all over the city
and forged relationships with these diverse communities,
including, very importantly, non-English-speaking communities
who are often excluded from discussions of policing
or what they want out of police.
We make sure to reach out to them.
Our staff are tabling and they are talking to people
and listening, and listening to voices
that are not often heard because this is something
that's extremely important for the CPC to do.
The loudest voices are not necessarily the ones
that are also experiencing policing,
and the ordinance is very clear about
how we're supposed to be careful
and deliberate about reaching out to all corners of the city.
-I hear what you're saying about listening
to these different voices.
Talk to me about that other part,
about amplifying those voices,
because that's an important part of this, too.
-It definitely is.
So this is an example of where the commission themselves
and the commissioners and what they do
really can be an opportunity to amplify those voices.
So CPC commission meetings are held in public settings.
They're open to the public, they're publicized online.
Anyone can watch them
and watch what the commissioners are doing.
And so that's a place where we can make these voices louder.
We can bring community members
such as what happened in January.
The CPC had a meeting
that was about small-business owners,
and they were from different parts of the city,
a very diverse group.
And this was an example of amplifying
the voice of just one group
to the public setting of our CPC meetings.
-Thank you for that.
And you're going down a path
that I'd like to continue here with you.
If you could share some other situations maybe
where you were instrumental in amplifying
the voice of a community to influence
a specific policy or practice.
So not only how you were carrying
that voice of the community into the conversation,
but how did that influence people
and how did that change the minds of people
when it comes to a certain policy?
Take us through that if you could.
-Sure. Well, I have a couple of examples.
One is from the state level
and the other one is much more recent.
So, at the state level in the 2023 legislative session
that happened earlier this year, between January and March,
I was trying to connect the work with the CPC,
which is focused on Seattle,
to what's happening in terms of police reform
at the state level.
It affects Seattle somewhat.
We're still under a consent decree.
However, there are important changes
that a state legislator was looking at
that we might still be affected by at some point in the future.
So I wanted to make sure that the CPC was at that table.
And so in my role I was making presentations to the CPC
about what was happening with the legislature
in terms of police practices, what was important
to some of our specific accountability partners
or others that we work with -- for example,
the Washington Coalition for Police Accountability
or ACLU of Washington.
We have some overlap
and shared interest in some of the legislation
that was going through the state at that time.
And so what I did was try to educate the commissioners.
And again, because we have these open meetings, by extension,
educate the public -- What are these laws,
what was being proposed, what was it looking like?
Were legislators in Olympia interested in more police reform
or were they trying to hold back?
And so that was one example of using this
to amplify voice of the community,
and most importantly, educate the community
and help connect them with what's happening
in someplace that seems far away
but could have a lot of impact.
Another one was, just happened very recently,
and again illustrates the importance
of having our public meetings.
So you may remember in the news there was some coverage
of basically footage from 2021 in the East Precinct.
There was a number of inappropriate
and disturbing things that were put up there
that was very upsetting to community members.
And so we utilized the commissioners --
and again, executive director is supporting that work --
we utilized this public space
to bring Chief Diaz to discuss publicly
what they were doing about these disturbing images,
as well as bring the mother of someone who had had --
it was a fake tombstone that was up in the East Precinct --
bring the mother of that person
to talk about the effect of this on her.
So these are two examples of how we can be
and the CPC is potentially very instrumental
in amplifying the voice of the community --
getting stories out, getting heard,
because the media was very interested in the latter story.
The media was a little bit less interested
in the legislative side,
but they were very interested in the latter story
that took place right here in Seattle
and had a lot of importance to the community.
-Both important stories.
Can you take me next-level with it, Cali?
Can you talk about a situation there
where a policy has actually changed
because of the work you've done to amplify voices?
-Well, I have not been here very long.
This the whole process of working through policies
with the Seattle Police Department takes a long time.
This is not something that can happen turning on a dime,
but a lot of what the CPC does --
because we don't have investigatory powers
like our partners in OPA or OIG --
what we have is a voice.
What we have is potentially a bully pulpit.
We can bring voices up and make them public
and get public attention through the work
that our commissioners do.
Talking to the media, writing op-eds
as they've done earlier this year,
writing letters and making them public back and forth with SPD
and the Seattle Fire Department.
All of these things are examples of amplifying voices,
at least to get the discussion started,
have a public discussion
about what changes in policy might look like,
because they do take quite some time to come into place.
-Thank you.
Moving on to our next question here,
the CPC executive director is accountable for leading
and managing staff to fulfill the CPC's purpose.
I want to make sure we gain more insight
into your administrative management.
It's a three-part question here.
The first one -- How do you prioritize and delegate work
within the office?
-Sure.
One of the things that's important to know about me
as I seek this position
is that my background is in academia.
I was formerly a college professor
and I was teaching masters of public administration students.
So my pivot into this current role
as interim executive director,
all of my administrative and management experience
has been in the CPC itself.
So I've had the opportunity to learn a lot
about running a city agency in Seattle specifically.
There's a lot of unique aspects of that,
and this has been very helpful for me to learn that.
So what I've learned is about managing a city agency
with respect to the City Budget Office,
Human Resources office,
working with the mayor's office, City Council and others
that actually help make the agency run.
So in terms of prioritizing and delegating work
amongst the staff, it's really important to know
that we are a small and mighty team.
We are the smallest of all of the oversight agencies
by quite a bit,
and so we have a lot to do under the ordinance.
However, we all work very effectively together.
The community engagement team, our policy team,
our communications team,
the executive director all have different roles to play.
And so that's what I see when different things come up.
Some of them are expected.
We have deadlines with regard to City Council
or other things that we know,
but there's other things that are unexpected
that we have to be very swift in our response to.
And so we really try to work together
in terms of how we delegate tasks
to the people that can do it best
as well as help each other when we need it.
-Got it. And separating it into different teams.
Sounds like that's the way you approach this too,
having people take on those different parts of it.
-Yes, definitely. -Thank you.
I'll move on to the second piece here --
supporting employee morale and engagement.
How do you do that?
-Yeah, this is, again, where being
a small team is very helpful.
So the CPC -- and in any organization
that I would be working with I would do the same thing --
is having regular meetings where we get to know each other.
The work of the community engagement team
can be very, very different.
They're out in the community, they're meeting with people.
Then the work of the policy team, who deals with laws
and is often at the computer.
So we want to make sure that we all understand
what everyone's doing on the team,
and that really helps to work through morale.
Especially for all agencies that work in police oversight,
this is a difficult topic to work in.
There can be very serious and demoralizing challenges.
For example, the situation in East Precinct.
However, morale is really helpful
because we're working towards the same goal.
We come up with goals together
that are inspired by the ordinance
but also inspired by the strengths
that each and every member brings to the team.
-Thank you.
Moving on to this last piece here --
growing and developing staff.
Let's talk about that piece of it
in terms of your administrative management.
-Yes, well, again,
my background as a teacher and an educator really helps
because I want to encourage everyone to grow
and develop into their best potential,
not just for the purposes of helping the team,
but also for what they want out of their careers.
So I support and encourage any staff
that wants to expand their skills
through the very wide diversity of programs
that the city of Seattle provides,
as well as external programs,
external trainings or conferences
that might be helpful for them.
In terms of teamwork, all of our staff,
the entire staff goes to
the National Association of Civilian Oversight
of Law Enforcement Conference every year,
and we're looking forward to going to that conference
in Chicago in October.
This is where we can collaborate with other people
doing civilian oversight in different ways
and learn from them as well as get to know them.
So this is something that I think is critically important.
This comes from my background as an educator,
but I always want people to learn
and have the opportunity to learn
and be supported in learning.
-Thank you, our final question here,
let me put it to you this way.
What do you see as most critical
in the CPC executive director's relationship
with the inspector general
and the director of the Office of Police Accountability?
And also, how would you facilitate
a community conversation
about the work of police accountability partners?
Maybe you can split it into two there.
I wanted to make sure I talked about the relationship
with the inspector general
and the Office of Police Accountability.
-Sure, of course. Yeah.
We are three parts of the same stool --
the CPC, OIG, and OPA.
And the ordinance, again, this is really what I'm focused on,
sort of tells us what we should do.
It doesn't tell us how to do it, but it says what our roles are.
So this was, again, designed to build an accountability system
with strengths of civilian-led misconduct investigations --
that's with OPA -- as well as an independent inspector general --
that's OIG -- and a strong community-based oversight.
This is something that's very unique about Seattle
and something that makes makes it more challenging,
but also makes Seattle really a leader nationwide.
So this is something that was written into the ordinance,
something that is very important for me
when I think about my relationships
with the accountability partners.
So they both have different strengths.
The OPA and OIG, Seattle has valued and qualified partners
to do the critical work in investigations about
potential police misconduct and auditing the overall system
to ensure it meets the intended goals.
And OPA and OIG have taken strong steps already
to address concerns about police violence --
for example, the OIG Sentinel Event Reviews
of 2020 protests in Seattle and the police violence
that occurred against community members there.
But the community voice is not necessarily central
to their work in the ordinance or in practice.
So the difficult challenges
of having a robust system of oversight
that effectively manages cases of police misconduct
while respecting legal personnel processes
requires the dedicated attention of staff
who are focused on accurate
and timely investigations of personnel.
So where I see the CPC fitting in is
because the ordinance says
we are the ones that are supposed to have that voice.
We are the ones that are supposed to
specifically do outreach to community.
And what's important is that, as I mentioned before,
it is not in the ordinance specifically about violence
by police against community members.
We are tasked in the ordinance to reach out
and learn about all of the concerns about policing
from the wide variety of communities in Seattle.
And that's really where I think our strength is
as part of the system.
So in terms of education
and facilitating community conversations,
this is something that is very important,
and I think it's very important as an educational piece --
getting back to education --
because I think there's sometimes a lack of clarity
in the community about who does what
and what this accountability system looks like.
For example, the CPC does not have any investigatory powers.
We can't do subpoenas.
There's nothing we can do when police misconduct happens.
That's something that we would refer over to OPA.
So I think helping the community understand
what these different pieces look like
and how we work together is very important.
There have been events in the past.
For example, last year, I wasn't part of it,
but there was an event that was facilitated by clergy
where all three of the accountability partners
came together to take community questions
and to discuss what this might look like.
And I think there might be another one coming up
later this year, facilitated by the NAACP,
which would also do the same thing.
This is both an opportunity for education
and then to take community questions directly
and make sure they land in the appropriate place.
-Thank you.
That town hall type of atmosphere
is what I'm hearing here.
Are there other ways to try to make sure you're engaging
and getting that community awareness out there
about the three-legged stool you're talking about here
with police accountability partners?
-Yes.
One of the things that I did as part of my role
as interim executive director is I did a video series.
It's all on the CPC website,
although I think it could belong anywhere,
that talks about the ordinance itself
and where the CPC fits in as well as our partners.
I think it's very important to understand that we are here
because of the wishes
and desires of City Council in 2017,
when they made the accountability ordinance,
as well as the most recent changes they made in 2023.
And so we're very much driven by what that says.
That's what sort of tells us what to do.
So this is a short video series.
Each one is about a minute long
and it talks about what we do,
why we do it, and how we might fit in.
I think it would be wonderful to have such a video series
expanded to include the role of OIG
and the inspector general discussing it,
as well as the OPA director as well.
-Well, thank you very much for all of this, Cali.
I really appreciate you joining us.
The Community Police Commission
will be selecting the executive director
during their regular August 16th meeting.
The meeting notice can be found
on the Community Police Commission website.
The Community Police Commission is interested
in hearing your feedback regarding the selection
of the executive director.
You are invited to provide your feedback with CPC
via the link you see on your screen.
I'm Brian Callanan.
Thank you for joining us here on the Seattle Channel.