As the city moves to dismiss 100 tickets tainted by one police officer's political agenda, Seattle police said Monday they plan new steps to better teach the department's officers and citizens about the ban on smoking marijuana in public. "It's not really about writing tickets. We're trying to educate people," Deputy Chief Carmen Best told the City Council during a briefing prompted by the disclosure that bicycle Officer Randy Jokelaissued the vast majority of public-use tickets the first half of the year for personal reasons. [continues 918 words]
In Municipal Court Not Just Those Issued by Police Officer Facing Discipline Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes, reacting to one police officer's personal campaign to write citations for public marijuana use, will announce Monday that he will seek dismissal of more than 85 tickets issued during the first seven months of the year, according to two City Hall sources. Holmes, who is set to discuss the decision at a briefing of the City Council on Monday morning, will go beyond Police Chief Kathleen O'Toole's request to dismiss tickets written by bicycle Officer Randy Jokela and include all infractions, out of fairness to everyone who was cited, according to the sources and briefing materials provided to The Seattle Times. [continues 858 words]
Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske has accepted a job in the Obama administration, most likely overseeing the nation's drug policies, according to sources familiar with the chief's plans. Kerlikowske, who has led the department for more than eight years, has told the department's top commanders he expects to leave to take a top federal position, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren't officially authorized to disclose the information. One source said the Seattle office of the FBI had received a "special presidential inquiry" ordering a comprehensive background check on Kerlikowske in anticipation of his taking a position in the administration. [continues 1105 words]
Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske fired a patrol officer and disciplined two sergeants Wednesday in a long-running misconduct investigation, according to department sources familiar with the inquiry. But one of the sergeants said Kerlikowske did not uphold the most serious misconduct finding against him, a last-minute move that caught the head of the department's internal investigation unit by surprise. The sergeant, James Arata, was found to have jokingly referred to a subordinate as a "rat" because that officer had cooperated with FBI investigators looking into the department. But Kerlikowske did not uphold a finding that concluded Arata twice had interfered with investigators and had failed to properly supervise the officer who was fired. [continues 1442 words]