A federal judge returned full control of policing practices to the Seattle Police Department on Wednesday, after overseeing 13 years of reforms prompted by a U.S. Justice Department investigation that found the city's officers were too quick to use force.
The city entered into a consent decree with the DOJ in 2012, under which it overhauled virtually every aspect of how the police department operated, including use of force, crisis intervention, police stops and detentions, crowd control, and the supervision of officers.
