Seattle police had a chance to prove abolitionists wrong. They didn’t. The department's inability to change over the past year has shown that its problems are hardwired into policing, and reform is not working. by Protesters face off with Seattle Police Department in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, July 25, 2020. (Matt M. McKnight/Crosscut) Both detractors and defenders of the Seattle Police Department must reckon with this fact: since renewed calls for police accountability began after the murder of George Floyd last year, Seattle cops have been on their best behavior — at least, the best that they can manage. Already under a federal probe that began in 2012 when President Obama’s Department of Justice found the Seattle Police Department repeatedly used force unconstitutionally, Seattle police have been the center of much attention and scrutiny for the past year. In the glare of last summer’s spotlight, Seattle police did not rise to the occasion, but rather reverted to the level of their training, exposing their institutional