Anyone see highlights from the press conference that the Seattle Police Department held to announce its latest scandal? No, you didn’t. And we’ll tell you why.It’s because there was no press conference. Instead, SPD put out a video message announcing that four members of its five-member DUI task force had been forging arrest records for months’ worth of DUIs. Here:Seattle Channel Video can be played in Flash Player 9 and upInstead of standing at the podium and answering tough questions about why officers were able to fudge signatures on arrest reports, SPD put out a short TV spot and called it a day.And of all the dumbshit antics that the department has become known for, here was one scandal that Diaz and co. could actually say they nipped in the bud–sort of. But no, they chose the closed and staged to the open and unscripted.As far as we know, the move was unprecedented.KOMO News noticed the cop-out as well. They asked Mayor Mike McGinn about it, who deflected the issue, saying something about it being “important for government to use all means of communicating” and promising that SPD wouldn’t make a habit out of the video messages.We’ll see. But for now, the department has enough of an image problem. It doesn’t need to be seen as acting like a bunch of pussies. NOTE: Upon looking at this post again, I think I may have gone a little overkill on the tone. The criticism that SPD avoided having a press conference when the circumstances clearly called for one is valid, and I stand behind it. But it could have been said without some of the colorful language that I’m sometimes prone to. So for that, I apologize.Follow The Daily Weekly on Facebook and Twitter.