A Kirkland Police Department (KPD) investigation found that the officers who responded to an “unwanted person” call at a local Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt shop in November 2018 did not violate any policies or act out of racial bias.
The investigation did, however, discover that the department missed an opportunity to mediate the situation. As a result the department has made updates to police practice when responding to such calls.
“Kirkland PD is committed to ensuring that something like this, where someone felt unwelcome in our community, doesn’t happen again,” Kirkland Police Chief Cherie Harris said.
The event drew national media attention after a Seattle Times column “‘Unwanted subject’: What led a Kirkland yogurt shop to call police on a black man” was published on Nov. 16, 2018, outlining what happened at the frozen yogurt shop on Nov. 7, 2018. Byron Ragland, a black man visiting the business, was approached by an officer and told that the owner requested he leave.
Details on police response
The KPD investigation results, released on Jan. 11, give insight into exactly what happened that day last fall.
The department’s inquiry, which began the day the Seattle Times piece was published, looked into whether the column was an accurate representation of events that day.
Detectives conducted interviews with those involved, collected store footage and text messages pertinent to the 911 call. Neither Ragland nor his attorney responded to interview requests for the investigation, according to the report.
On Nov. 7, 2018, the Totem Lake Menchie’s owner Ramon Cruz called 911 over an unwanted subject, Ragland — a court-appointed special advocate and visitation supervisor who was overseeing a visitation between a mother, identified as Tonya Clumpner, and her child.
Cruz, not onsite at the time, reported that his staff were “scared” of the subject who had been sitting by himself for more than 30 minutes without making a purchase, the investigation report states.
There was no mention of race from Cruz until he was asked by the 911 dispatcher for a description, the document continues.
Video captured the police response — lasting less than one minute — shows that the officer entered the store, walked past the counter and “contacted the only male subject in the store, sitting alone at a table in the corner,” according to investigation findings. The officer can be seen shaking Ragland’s hand, before asking for his identification.
“Byron informed me that he did not have any identification to show me,” the officer reported in the investigation. He then told Ragland that the owner wanted him to leave. Ragland asked why and asked if it was because he was black. The officer responded “not that I know of.”
Clumpner told officers Ragland was there for her supervised visit. Ragland was again asked for his information. Clumpner then stood up and said “that this is wrong” and told Ragland “let’s get out of here,” details show.
“Ms. Clumpner described the (officer) contact as an interrogation,” the report says.
NAACP response
In a statement from Seattle-King County National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), officials said they strongly condemned “the racial profiling incident” at Menchie’s that day, in which “Kirkland Police Officers unlawfully evicted Ragland from a public accommodation without adequate cause.”
“This blatant example of racial profiling is unacceptable and likely a violation of Mr. Ragland’s right to enjoy public accommodations. The Kirkland Police Officers failed to take reasonable steps to safeguard Mr. Ragland from blatant discrimination and facilitated the discrimination by ordering Mr. Ragland to leave the premises, without identifying any justification for his eviction,” the statement read.
City as a resource
What followed were apologies from both the city and KPD to Ragland. Then protesters gathered outside the business on Nov. 20, speaking of the negative impacts the event had on Ragland and communities. Outside the front door was a letter penned by the store owner. “We are sorry, and we will learn from this, grow from this and become better people,” the letter read. “We will work hard together to make sure that this will not happen again in our store.”
The city is working to prevent similar events from happening again.
“We want everyone to know that we’re committed to this,” said city manager Kurt Triplett. “Our council has been really supportive of that as well.”
Triplett said more community events, like the one that gathered more than 100 Kirkland locals in November last year, are planned to happen in 2019. The discussions will address what he called a continued hunger for more conversation around race bias and inclusion. They’re expected to begin around springtime.
“We want to be a resource so everyone can learn from our experience,” Triplett said.
Protocol change
KPD also began an immediate examination of its practices when responding to “unwanted subject” emergency calls.
The changes direct officers to now first determine facts of the situation before removing anyone from a business. The change hopes to “mediate misunderstandings whenever possible.”
“To be clear, if someone is scared or afraid, we will go,” Harris said. “We’re just asking officers to take a few more steps in gathering information before making a determination.”
As of last November, the police department has responded to more than 674 of this type of phone call.
On Nov. 27, 2018, the department began to offer employees guidance on how they could better answer these calls. Officers were told to determine if a criminal basis exists for the call, and if civil in nature, to establish if the employees or employer have spoken directly to the “unwanted subject” or if a posted sign exists communicating any patron rules.
“The owner/employee’s reason cannot be discriminatory in nature,” the investigation report states. “If the owner/employee has not taken these steps, we will encourage them to do so as it is their place of business.”
“Officers do work really hard to do the right thing and to make the right decisions,” Lt. Robert Saloum, KPD public information officer, said. He added that the department is very receptive to doing something different in order to improve it.
“It’s going to take everyone’s involvement to get this understanding down of what we can and can’t do on these calls,” Saloum said.
Officials from the NAACP — who organized the protest outside Menchie’s — said they were prepared to work with local businesses and police departments to locate resources and implement training “to ensure that all members of the community are safe and welcome in areas of public accommodation.”
“The NAACP has historically taken legal action and economic action against organizations that stand in the way of our mission as the leading civil rights organization in the country,” they said in a statement. “The King County Chapter of the NAACP is prepared to live up the legacy of our namesake and protect our citizens.”
Similar occurrences
Menchie’s isn’t the only place to experience backlash following a police call. In April of last year, a Philadelphia Starbucks was under fire after two black men — who gathered at the business for a real estate project meeting —were arrested.
Two minutes after they entered the establishment, police were called, according to reports. They were put in double-lock handcuffs and escorted outside and placed in a police car. Uproar and protests over the events followed.
Starbucks, in acknowledgement of wrongdoing, closed more than 8,000 of their company-owned stores to conduct racial-bias training on May 29.
The two men, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, did not pursue a lawsuit against the city. Instead, they settled for $1 each. In return they asked the city to fund $200,000 for a grant to go to aspiring high school entrepreneurs.
