CITY OF SEATTLE
ORDINANCE __________________
COUNCIL BILL __________________
title
AN ORDINANCE named in honor of MiChance Dunlap-Gittens and relating to the Seattle Police Department; prohibiting law enforcement officers from questioning, except in limited circumstances, persons 18 years of age or younger where a Miranda warning is administered unless legal counsel is provided; prohibiting law enforcement officers from requesting permission from a person under 18 years of age to conduct a search of the person or property, dwellings, or vehicles under that person's control unless legal counsel is provided for that person; and adding a new Section 3.28.147 to the Seattle Municipal Code.
body
WHEREAS, developmental and neurological science concludes that the process of cognitive brain development continues into adulthood, and that the human brain undergoes "dynamic changes throughout adolescence and well into young adulthood" (see Richard J. Bonnie, et al., Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach, National Research Council (2013), p. 96, and Ch. 4); and
WHEREAS, as recognized by the United States Supreme Court, children "generally are less mature and responsible than adults," "they often lack the experience, perspective, and judgment to recognize and avoid choices that could be detrimental to them," "they are more vulnerable or susceptible to...outside pressures than adults" and "characteristically lack the capacity to exercise mature judgment and possess only an incomplete ability to understand the world around them." J.D.B. v. North Carolina, 564 U.S. 261, 272 (2011). As stated in Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48, 78 (2010), children "have limited understandings of the criminal justice system and the roles of the institutional actors within it."; and
WHEREAS, pursuant to the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, custodial interrogation of an individual by law enforcement requires that the individual be advised of their rights and make a k...
Click here for full text