Norm Stamper
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Norman Harvey Stamper (born 1944) is an American former
chief of police A chief of police (COP) is the title given to an appointed official or an elected one in the command hierarchy, chain of command of a police department, particularly in North America. A chief of police may also be known as a police chief or somet ...
, 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 police force, law enforcement agency of the city of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is responsible for the entire city except for the campus of the University of Washington (which is und ...
(1994–2000) responsible for
Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
'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 lachrymatory agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the Mace (spray), early commercial self-defense spray, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the ey ...
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
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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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'', ''
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'', ''
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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 occupatio ...
,
Cornel West Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, theologian, political activist, politician, social critic, and public intellectual. West was an independent candidate in the 2024 United States presidential election and is an ou ...
,
Mike Huckabee Michael Dale Huckabee (, born August 24, 1955) is an American diplomat, political commentator, Baptist minister, and politician serving as the 29th United States Ambassador to Israel, United States ambassador to Israel since 2025. A member of ...
, 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 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 cannabis in the United St ...
. 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 September13, 1994. The Act provided $1.6billion toward investigat ...
, 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 Social movement, socio-political movement that expressed opposition to Social equality, social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of real democracy around the world. It aimed primar ...
, 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 The bad apples metaphor originated as a warning of the corrupting influence of one corrupt or sinful person on a group: that "one bad apple can spoil the barrel". Over time the concept has been used to describe the opposite situation, where "a ...
' 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