Seattle’s Police Court was the forerunner to the current Municipal
Court. The first judicial officer for Seattle was appointed by the City Council
in 1875 from among the King County Justices of the Peace serving the Seattle
Precinct. In 1886, a charter amendment made each Seattle Precinct Justice a
Police Justice with jurisdiction over ordinance violations. The 1890
Freeholders Charter officially established a Police Court in the city. This
provision was repealed in 1892, after an 1891 state law created a Municipal
Court system that included a Justice Court and Police Court.
The Police Court was a “court of limited jurisdiction” under the purview
of the city of Seattle. (In contrast, the county was the parent agency for the
Justice Court.) One of the justices of the peace in the Seattle Precinct was
appointed to serve on the Police Court in addition to his duties on the Justice
Court. The Police Court heard violations of state law that occurred within the
city limits, as well as violations of City ordinances. It dealt with
misdemeanors, traffic offenses, minor civil suits, and small claims, and also
heard liquor-related cases during Prohibition.
The court was called by varying names over the years. Before 1891, it
seems to generally have been known as the Police Court. From 1891 to 1897, it
was called the Municipal Court, and then again was referred to as the Police
Court until 1928, when it was once again called the Municipal Court. It
retained that name from then on, except for 1954-1955, when it was called the
Municipal Police Court.
The currently constituted Municipal Court was created in 1955 under
Chapter 290 of the Washington State Laws. It has exclusive original
jurisdiction over violations of all city ordinances, collects fines and
forfeitures relating thereto, and hears cases related to misdemeanor defined by
State statute that occur within the City limits. Municipal judges are elected
by the qualified electors of the City of Seattle.
Content Description
Court dockets, indexes, and case summaries relating to cases heard in
the Police Court. Series are described more fully below.
Use of the Collection
Restrictions on Access :
Records are open to the public.
Preferred Citation :
[Item and date], [Title of collection], Record Series 5601-[XX]. Volume
[number], Page [number]. Seattle Municipal Archives.
Administrative Information
Arrangement :
The Seattle Police Court Records are arranged into four series:
5601-01: Police Court Dockets, 1886-1956
5601-02: Police Court General Indexes, 1891-1956
5601-03: Minute Books, 1894-1911
5601-04: Police Judge’s Journal, 1897-1920
Related Materials :
Record series 5602-01 (Docket Record of Liquor Cases, 1917-1926) and
5602-02 (Liquor Docket Index, 1916-1926) relate to liquor-related cases heard
in Police Court during the Prohibition era.
Detailed Description of the Collection
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in
the collection.
5601-01: Police Court Dockets, 1886-1956
241 volumes
Summary of cases heard in Police Court involving violations of
Seattle’s criminal codes. Each case includes a docket number, date, defendant’s
name, offense, plea, costs, and disposition of the case. By the 1910s,
witnesses, complainants, and bail were often also included. The earliest cases
include a narrative account of the progression of the case, but in 1889 the
courts started using forms for easier entry of information.
The first eight volumes overlap in time with the next eight,
through October 14, 1890. The system changed from having two or more judges to
one on October 15, 1890, and after this date, the volumes run sequentially
until the end of the series. After 1926, the dockets are available only on
microfilm. The first 15 microfilm reels do not correspond directly to volume
numbers, but cases can be accessed by date. Volume 162 and volumes 178 through
223 were filmed one volume per reel and are numbered identically with the
corresponding volume.
Some of the most common offenses listed in the early volumes are
drunkenness, vagrancy, and disorderly conduct, with prostitution and fighting
also making frequent appearances. Traffic violations appear on a large scale
beginning in the 1920s. Some of the more unusual offenses include driving
across a fire hose, using profane language, and “riding a horse in a public
street at a fast rate of six miles an hour.”
Indexes to the Police Court Dockets (5601-01) list the
defendant’s name, the volume or docket number in which the case appears, and
the page number of the volume. (The first volume lists only the defendant’s
name and case number.) Each volume indexes between 3 and 21 dockets; within
each index volume defendants are organized by first letter of their last name
and then listed in order of their case number.
This series contains summary information of cases heard in
Police Court and corresponds to the Police Court Dockets (5601-01). It was
probably used to compute the final costs related to the cases. Includes date,
case number corresponding to Police Court Docket case number, name of
defendant, offense, names of attorneys, names of witnesses, plea, and judgment.
Cases that were continued for two or more days have listings for each day they
came before the judge. This record was compiled by the clerk of the court.
This is a log of cases heard in Police Court and corresponds to
the Police Court Dockets (5601-01). It includes summary information: date, name
of defendant, offense, bail, plea, names of prosecution witnesses, and
judgment. Beginning with Volume 5, the entries include a “sheet number” which
corresponds to the “blotter number” in the Police Court Dockets. The Police
Judge’s Journal does not include case numbers as found in the Dockets. This
series appears to be a daily record maintained by the Judge during the course
of hearings and trials. Cases that were continued for two or more days have
listings for each day they came before the judge.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online
catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or
places should search the catalog using these headings.
