By GENE JOHNSON
SEATTLE — Kathleen O'Toole, a
one-time Boston police commissioner and former inspector general for Ireland's
national police force, was nominated Monday as Seattle's first female police
chief.
Seattle
police have been under scrutiny for years, especially since an officer shot and
killed a Native American woodcarver in 2010. In late 2011, the Justice
Department found officers were too quick to use force, including using their
batons and flashlights, even in situations that could have been defused
verbally.
The
findings rankled some of the department's top brass, but several of those
figures have since left, and the department has been working to change under a
settlement with federal authorities. It has adopted new policies on virtually
everything officers do, including stops and detentions, using force, data
collection and crisis intervention.
O'Toole laid out her general
priorities during Monday's news conference: restoring public trust and
department pride, focusing on crime and quality of life in each neighborhood,
and running the department like a good business.
She also said she was
encouraged by the amount of support within the community and among police
officers and staff for the department to move beyond the federal monitoring.
