The Seattle Police Department said Tuesday that it was investigating two officers featured in a video and an article in The New York Times about the department’s efforts to retrain officers to eliminate unnecessary force during confrontations with civilians.

The video and article, which appeared Sunday, focused on a session in which a group of Seattle police officers were being instructed on the principles of de-escalation — a method of persuading people to comply with orders without resorting to violence.

Such training in the 1,300-member Police Department was mandated by the Justice Department after federal investigators found in 2012 that the Seattle police had engaged in a pattern of excessive force. The cases included the 2010 fatal shooting by a police officer of John T. Williams, a woodcarver who had been carrying a carving knife while walking down the street.

Image Seattle police officers being trained in the principles of de-escalation, or ways to avoid violence. Credit... Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

In the video, an officer at a training session in May told an instructor that he believed de-escalation encompassed a far broader range of activities than the instructor was discussing.