It’s time to decriminalize UW Seattle! Since June 2020, hundreds of organizations and over 10,000 members of the UW community have signed on to our demands to decriminalize UW: disarm and defund UWPD and invest those resources in our Black, Indigenous and People of Color at UW Seattle. These demands are inspired by the work of Movement for Black Lives and Decriminalize Seattle and rooted in years of work opposing police and prisons in this region.
Thanks to support from the Associated Students of UW (ASUW), the Graduate and Professional Student Senate, Faculty Senate, and many more, we are turning the tide.
- On June 15, 2020, President Cauce committed to “not hiring any officers who have previously been disciplined for any ethics, use of force, violence, bias, and any other serious violations.”
- On September 9, 2020, President Cauce committed “not to contract with the Seattle Police Department for security on our campus for football games or any other events on campus.”
The Demands
On June 15, 2020, President Cauce committed to stop hiring police officers with disciplinary records.
We don’t need armed police officers to respond to reports of bicycle theft and loitering. We know that armed response to non-life threatening events are more likely to harm people who are houseless, poor and/or Black.
