SEATTLE — Seattle Police Department Chief Adrian Diaz addressed the department's protest policies for the first time since the city settled a lawsuit related to the 2020 protests.
Many of the plaintiffs claimed the interactions between the protestors and police turned violent, resulting in physical and emotional damage. The case with the city was settled for $10 million on Jan. 23.
The city did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement.
Diaz said the settlement does not mean the officers made mistakes. He said the department has made changes to work with the community to allow protests as long as others' rights aren't infringed.
Diaz told KING 5 the department has worked with the Office of the Inspector General, crowd psychologists from around the world and has completed multiple review processes to implement changes to protest policies.
Though the department's goal is to allow protestors their First Amendment freedoms, Diaz said they will still intervene when they believe crimes are being committed.
"We still find ourselves making arrests when people commit criminal acts. Anything from property destruction to assaults, so we have still included that but we've also taken a different approach that's actually reduced drastically our use of force," Diaz said.
The city's Public Outreach Engagement Team is responsible for working with protest organizers to plan the group's travel and aid in the overall reduction of a visual police presence at the demonstration through communication.
"Everything from the start of the protest is all about de-escalation," Diaz said.
Diaz cited the department's response to the Jan. 6 protest that formed on the northbound lanes of Interstate 5 as a success.
He said that the protest would have to be moved due to the public safety threat of shutting down the freeway. He said the department was most successful when officers used only communication tactics instead of force or immediate arrests.
"That was probably a different approach than we've had in the past," he said.