Unredacted

In 1920 the Seattle Police Department parted ways with the ol' ball and chain and introduced the Oregon Boot.

The Oregon Boot—a 5-to-28 pound weight bolted to the heel of an old leather boot—ensured prisoners would think twice before trying to make a run at escaping from police custody.

Today, police use a combination of leg shackles and a chain wrapped around a prisoner's belly to deter escape attempts.

Each equine member of the Seattle Police Department's Mounted Unit is specially selected for their temperament and endurance, and specially trained to resist their animal instincts amongst large crowds and in tense situations.

But for all their excellent breeding—matched only by their majestic grace—the Mounted Unit's horses are still horses, and remain bound to one particular instinct:

From time to time, the four-legged members of the Mounted Unit will deposit their leavings on city streets and sidewalks.

To get the straight poop on SPD's horses, we went straight to Mounted Unit Sergeant Jim Scott about how his officers handle what comes out of their equine partners' hindquarters.

"If it's in a cross walk or on Park property or a sidewalk, we dismount and shovel and bag it up," says Sgt. Scott. "If it's in the street, we leave it for the nightly street sweepers."  However, from high up on horseback, Mounted Unit officers can't always tell when their equine partners have done their business.

"One of the problems is that our horses are trained to 'walk through' a bowel movement," Sgt. Scott says. "They don't stop walking when they poop, so, often, we don't even know they have."

While in most cases it's against the law to "fail to remove the fecal matter deposited...on public property or private property," the city code makes an exception for animals "owned by the Seattle Police Department and used to assist in the law enforcement."

The department has looked into diapering the horses, but Sgt. Scott says all the horse diapering systems currently on the market "would restrict movement to the point of distraction."

Until the day that a more elegant solution arrives, Sgt. Scott says the Mounted Unit will "continue to make it a priority to poop-scoop whenever we can."

1. The SPD 10-Print section is responsible for taking fingerprints, keeping these records and using them to identify people. Our prints are shared with the King County Regional System called AFIS.  The Washington State Patrol keeps a statewide system.  And finally the FBI keeps a huge database called IAFIS, with more than 70 million subjects. All of these systems share information with each other.

#2 Fingerprints are developed while in the womb and are called friction ridges.  Unique patterns also form on palms, toes and soles of feet. No two people have the same fingerprints, even identical twins.  And because these ridges form so far down in the dermis of the skin, they reform over scars and burns that are just on the epidermis.  

#3 Fingerprints are great for solving crimes because they are unique to everyone and permanent. In the 1880s, suspects used to be identified by the Bertillon System, which measured different body parts. When a suspect was misidentifed with this system in 1903, interest and use of fingerprinting began to grow. 

#4 There are eight patterns that people can have. Loop formations are the most common, followed by whorl patterns, and finally only 5% are arch patterns.  There is an average of over 150 ridge characteristics in a single print. 

#5 Prints can now be scanned digitally through a process called "Livescan".

#6 However, the fine folks of the 10-Print unit prefer good, old fashioned ink because they think you get a better, more detailed print this way.

#7 The ink used to take fingerprints is similar to the ink used to print newspapers.  Which makes a lot of sense when you think about it.

#8 The 10-Print unit keeps a lot of files, including an archive of old print cards.  The unit gets most of their prints when prisoners are processed, but also sometimes have to take prints from the deceased, or from unconscious patients at the hospital. 

#9 When asked, the people working in the unit agreed that the most satisfying aspect of their job was being able to put a name to a unidentified body for the family to get closure.  They also really liked being able to identify criminals who lie about their identity. 

The law doesn't stop at the water table.

SPD's Harbor Unit—a team of certified NAUI master divers, trained in search and rescue and Homeland Security—works round the clock, patrolling Seattle's waterways.

With the recent announcement of the building of a new North Precinct Station, officers could breathe a sigh of relief, as their current building was built to house a staff of 154 and is badly overcrowded with a staff of 254. This new station is being designed to accommodate up to 370 officers and staff. 

Everything is relative though, a mere 33 years ago the 1981 Annual Report was all agog with the plans for the current precinct, which was built in 1984.