Amy Barden, Seattle’s first chief of the Community Assisted Response and Engagement Department, said city officials used “cliques” instead of “gangs” during a crime statistics meeting. She questioned the wording, arguing that avoiding the term can make it harder to describe violence and identify solutions, while acknowledging the intention may be to avoid stigmatising people.

Seattle disbanded its dedicated gang unit in 2020 as it shifted its approach to gun violence. After a July shooting at the Bite of Seattle festival killed three people and injured at least four, then-police chief Shon Barnes referred to the suspected groups as “small groups”; he said 0.01 per cent of the city’s population was connected to 52 per cent of its shootings. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s office said it had not advised prosecutors to use “cliques” and operates separately from Seattle.