They just can’t stop, and this time they’re using your tax money to help shield them.

The department believes a public records fight over thousands of dash cam videos could carry a heavy price tag this year, according to the city’s own internal documents.

Well how bad could it be?

The department has already paid out more than $100,000, and this year it expects the amount to nearly triple with a projected loss of at least $300,000.

They’ve already been slapped before regarding this but they keep coming back because suppressing video is the cornerstone which protects their hired goons officers.  When video gets out, that’s when officers get caught.  Maybe they think they actually have a chance though and are justified.

Egan also discovered an email from the city attorney’s office about a lawsuit filed by KOMO News. We sued last fall after SPD refused a request for police videos. The email indicates the city believes its chances of winning the case after court appeals are less than 50 percent.

So in other words they’re spending money that isn’t theirs on a frivolous lawsuit to protect criminals hired by the state.

State Sponsored Criminal Count 282: Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes

Because the job of the City Attorney is to waste taxpayer dollars protecting the state’s hired goons who terrorize those same taxpayers.

Seriously with the way Seattle PD and the Seattle City Attorney are behaving when crap like this happens I’m both happy and pissed off.

After more than a year of bruising news, the Seattle Police Department found itself reeling Thursday after a veteran officer died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound hours after being arrested in an undercover drug sting.

So I’m happy that a corrupt officer has finally been held accountable, doubly so he did it to himself with the barrel of his own gun saving the public the costs of prosecuting him.  Now why would I be pissed off I hear you ask, well that’s simple.

“This is a tremendous tragedy,” Deputy Chief Nick Metz said at a somber news conference Thursday evening at police headquarters.

Know what a tragedy is Chief Metz?  The abuses your department is delivering to the law abiding public, the behavior of your police officers, and the all out corruption displayed by your department.  Then again maybe I’m jumping to conclusions, maybe he was innocent and just caught in the cross fire.

On Wednesday, as part of a so-called “integrity test,” an undercover officer from another agency working in the Rainier Valley approached Nelson and gave him a purse that contained cocaine, Metz said.

Unknown to Nelson, he was under surveillance by detectives watching to see if he booked the cocaine into evidence.

“He did not do that,” Metz said.

The officer was followed in his car after work and stopped by police just outside the city limits.

“There was a search, and we found a quantity of the narcotics,” Metz said.

Well there went the caught in the crossfire theory.  There is a time to stand up and say, “We Fucked Up! Here’s what we did wrong, this is how we’re fixing it.”  This department lacks the ability to air its dirty laundry and continues to act as if for some reason it is exempt from the rules of lawful behavior.  It appears that Deputy Chief Metz is just considering this a tragedy because the guy got caught and then committed suicide propelling the incident to the front page. 

State Sponsored Criminal Count HM: Deputy Chief Nick Metz

Because it’s a tragedy when one of our officers gets caught, doubly so when he does something to cause it to end up in the news.

via Joe

But criminal defense attorney James Egan never expected the city would preemptively sue him just for asking for police dash cam video.

Wait, the city is suing him for requesting public records.  Well maybe he was just pestering them with BS requests.

The situation involves two cases Egan handled pro bono. He believed the videos in each case show officer misconduct. Egan wanted to know if those officers had other questionable arrests, so he asked for 36 additional dash-cam videos.

Seattle PD is arguing that they are caught in the privacy law, what fails me though is these videos are a matter of public record.  There are admissible in court as evidence.  The only reason I know of privacy laws being involved is if the victim has been sexually assaulted.  But then we see the real motivation behind these efforts.  It has nothing to do with protecting the privacy of the public and everything to do with protecting their corrupt police officers.

The city argues it doesn’t have to release any videos for three years. That also happens to be when the statute of limitations runs out for suing the city and, as a KOMO News investigation discovered, it is also when dash-cam videos are routinely erased from the system.

Wonder why they don’t have to release videos until after the statute of limitations?  Could it be a game of cover your ass kids?  Remember this is the same department who shot someone in the back.  This also isn’t their first rodeo in the count either.  Three or more times is enemy action. 

State Sponsored Criminal Count 234: Pete Holmes

Because when an officer beats someone, hold on to the video and delay it until it no longer matters.