NAACP to hold hearings on police conduct

The Seattle-King County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People plans to begin a series of hearings Thursday exploring disparity in police interactions with minorities and the poor.

The People's Panel on Police Accountability is scheduled to hold a hearing at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Garfield Community Center at 2323 E. Cherry St.

Seven more hearings are scheduled between now and July with several in Seattle and others in Kent, Federal Way and Des Moines.

The panel is made up of community residents, some who have experienced police misconduct, and two Seattle University professors who are guiding the panel's research for a final report to be released later this summer, NAACP chapter president James Bible said.

The panel was created in partnership with the Minority Executive Directors Coalition after high-profile controversies last summer over police accountability.

The NAACP declared a "state of emergency" in how blacks and other minorities are treated by police after reviewing complaints made to the organization in King County, Bible said.

Last month, the P-I reported that in Seattle, blacks are arrested eight times as often as whites for obstructing an officer and nearly half of those cases are dismissed.