The seven-member City Council Advisory Panel on Police Accountability was established on October 22, 2007, by Resolution 31021. It was tasked with examining issues that have a significant impact on police accountability processes including legal rules and cultural dynamics. The panel was asked to identify any legal constraints, omissions, and/or ambiguities that inhibit police accountability in Seattle and review the current leadership philosophy and culture concerning police accountability within the Seattle Police Department. The panel began holding a series of public meetings on November 12, 2007 and subsequent meetings on November 26 and December 10, 2007. The panel was disbanded in 2008. The formation of this panel followed Mayor Greg Nickels' June 2007 appointment of an eleven-member panel charged with conducting a comprehensive review of Seattle's police accountability system.

Records in this series include the panel's charge, contextual information of Seattle's police accountability including reports from 1999 and newspaper articles from 2007, documents on the Seattle police accountability system including OPA and OPARB, panel members' biographies, minutes, presentation slides and diagrams from meetings, and information on the separate Mayor's Panel. Correspondence between panel members and emails with questions and suggestions for the panel, as well as a table of contents, copy of Resolution 31021, and the 2007 and 2008 Final Report are included. Items in the table of contents that are not in the collection include legal review, work plan, and contact information.