Norm Stamper
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Norman Harvey Stamper (born 1944) is an American former
chief of police Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the boa ...
, writer, law enforcement consultant, and advocate for criminal justice reform.


Biography

Stamper is known for his role as Chief of the
Seattle Police Department The Seattle Police Department (SPD) is the principal law enforcement agency of the city of Seattle, Washington, United States, except for the campus of the University of Washington, which is under the responsibility of its own police department ...
(1994-2000) responsible for
Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
's contested response to the protests of the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, which eventually led to his resignation. Stamper has expressed regret about his decisions at the time. When discussing the use of chemical agents such as
tear gas Tear gas, also known as a lachrymator agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial aerosol, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In ad ...
Stamper declared it was a mistake and added "the chief in me should have said, 'For the greater good, we ought not to have brought those chemical agents out. We ought not to have, I think, raised the stakes.'" Stamper also blamed outward agents for the failures of his police force, declaring Eugene anarchists committed the majority of the anti-capitalist activism in Seattle. He was a police officer for 34 years, the first 28 in
San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
before moving to Seattle, and has a doctorate in Leadership and Human Behavior. He is the author of many articles and op-eds (''
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'', ''
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'', ''
Seattle Post-Intelligencer The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington, United States. The newspaper was foun ...
'', ''
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'', among others). He has appeared on numerous national television and radio programs, including ''
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'', ''
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'', and shows hosted by
Amy Goodman Amy Goodman (born April 13, 1957) is an American broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter, and author. Her investigative journalism career includes coverage of the East Timor independence movement, Morocco's occupation ...
,
Cornel West Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, political activist, social critic, actor, and public intellectual. The grandson of a Baptist minister, West focuses on the role of race, gender, and class in American society and ...
,
Mike Huckabee Michael Dale Huckabee (born August 24, 1955) is an American politician, Baptist minister, and political commentator who served as the 44th governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. He was a candidate for the Republican Party presidential nomina ...
, and others. He is also a blogger for ''
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''. Since his resignation, Stamper has called for the legalization of all drugs and the case-by-case release of persons incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenses. He serves as an advisory board member for
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition The Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP), formerly Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization group of current and former police, judges, prosecutors, and other criminal justice professionals who use their ex ...
as well as the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML ) is a social welfare organization based in Washington, D.C., that advocates for the reform of marijuana laws in the United States regarding both medical and non-medical use. Acc ...
. He has also starred in the documentary '' The Union: The Business Behind Getting High''. He also serves on the Constitution Project's Death Penalty Committee as well as Death Penalty Focus, organizations working to end executions. He was a founding member of the National Advisory Council on the
Violence Against Women Act The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) is a United States federal law (Title IV of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, ) signed by President Bill Clinton on September 13, 1994. The Act provided $1.6 billion toward investig ...
, and is committed to eradicating domestic violence, child abuse, and sexual assault. Stamper is the author of a book entitled ''Breaking Rank: A Top Cop's Exposé of the Dark Side of American Policing''. In 2016, he authored ''To Protect and Serve: How to Fix America's Police''. In response to the
Occupy movement The Occupy movement was an international populist socio-political movement that expressed opposition to social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of "real democracy" around the world. It aimed primarily to advance social and econo ...
, he has reiterated his regret about how he handled the protests in Seattle, and publicly stated the need to create an alternative to what he termed "the paramilitary bureaucracy that is American policing", stating no change will happen "unless, even as we cull 'bad apples' from our police forces, we recognize that the barrel itself is rotten".


References

1944 births American cannabis activists American non-fiction writers Living people Chiefs of the Seattle Police Department {{US-law-enforcement-bio-stub