Tag: Jaahnavi Kandula

City Council, Mayor Harrell, Police, public safety

Interim Police Chief Sue Rahr: “We Have a Lot of Work to Do.”
Photo by Andrew Engelson

By Andrew Engelson

PubliCola police accountability reporter Andrew Engelson sat down with interim police chief Sue Rahr for an interview on Friday, one week after she replaced former police chief Adrian Diaz. Mayor Bruce Harrell announced he was removing Diaz as chief amid allegations of gender and racial discrimination, harassment, and retaliation against Diaz and others at SPD.

The interview took place at SPD headquarters the day after a student was shot and killed in the parking lot of Garfield High School. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Andrew Engelson: Let’s talk about the Garfield High School shooting first. Violence among youth, particularly gun violence in the Central District and South Seattle, has become a longstanding, intractable issue. What do you plan to do to address this problem?

Sue Rahr: What I’m doing now is getting out and talking to as many people as I can to find out how the relationship became so acrimonious—the relationship between the police and the community. I know there are many areas of the city where there’s a very strong, cohesive relationship. But I am recognizing that we have a lot of work to do. In the area of Capitol Hill, the Central Area, there are a lot of opportunities to rebuild there. I’m going to start out with listening. The challenge will be to find the right people, and I will get multiple different perspectives. I don’t want to go to a single community leader or a single group and assume that they speak for the whole community. I want to talk to as many different people from as many different perspectives as I can.

I met with officers at the East Precinct yesterday. I went to their roll call to get their perspective on how they feel about doing their job and policing. And I’ll be honest with you, it kind of broke my heart to hear how much they feel that they’re not embraced by the community. And this is a community that needs support and needs partnership, because we clearly have some public safety issues going on. The officers were—I don’t know how to describe it. I don’t want to say hurt, that sounds a little bit melodramatic. But they want to work with the community and they feel like the community is rejecting them.

“The officers were—I don’t know how to describe it. I don’t want to say hurt, that sounds a little bit melodramatic. But they want to work with the community and they feel like the community is rejecting them.”

AE: There’s some understandable skepticism.

SR: I completely understand that. What we have to figure out is how do we try to heal that relationship? At this point, there’s no constructive reason for me to try and figure out who’s responsible for what. The relationship needs mending. I’ve got to make connections with the people that are in a position to help us heal. This horrible tragedy yesterday, it’s just so incredibly sad. I hope that maybe we can use that as a starting point to say: We owe this to our children. The police cannot do it alone. And the community can’t do it alone. We’ve got to do it together. So we’ve got to find a way to heal. I don’t have the answer yet. But I’m going to be asking a lot of questions and I’m sure we’ll get ideas from people.

AE: I’m hearing that there are also going to be increased patrols in that area.

SR: I want to be really clear about those increased patrols. We’re not talking about coming in gangbusters or that we’re going to start pulling people over and doing heavy enforcement. That is not the mission. The mission is: Be present, talk to people, be the visual example of security. We want people to see a patrol car and say: I’m glad the cops are here. I don’t think we’re there yet. But I believe we can get there. 

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AE: Officers at SPD have told me morale is about as low as it’s been since 2020. And some of that is that Diaz was not particularly well-liked among a lot of the rank and file. I’ve also heard there has been a culture of retaliation against people who’ve spoken up and tried to change things. If you’re not going to be making personnel changes, which I think you said at the press conference— 

SR: I said I’m not going to change staff at the top right now. If I need to make a staff change, I will make it. The mayor was very clear. He said you will have the ability to change staff as you need to. But I’ve been here a whole week.

AE:  But does that description sound accurate to you—that upper leaders have engaged in retaliation or misused Office of Police Accountability investigations, that sort of thing?

SR: I have heard people use the term “weaponizing” of OPA and things like that. I have not seen that among the upper command staff. I’m certainly not going to cover my ears, if I hear of it. I haven’t seen it. I have heard people say: It feels like there’s a target on my back. I also have been around long enough to know when an adverse personnel action happens, it’s a very common human response to assume that somebody’s retaliating against me. I haven’t seen evidence of that, but I haven’t had enough time to really dig into it. And I think it’s important to know that two things can be true. There can be a legitimate reason to move somebody [to another part of SPD]. And it’s possible that there can also be discrimination.

And to be honest with you, we’ve got public safety to deal with. And I feel like there’s been so much focus recently on personnel issues and acrimony. I am trying my best to get people to stop ruminating about that and focus on public safety. 

AE: In my reporting, and KUOW’s reporting, and in the 30/30 report, it seems there is a climate of misogyny and discrimination against women at SPD. What, in your short time here, can you do to address that and fix that?

SR: Because I’ve done work all around the country [and] I’ve worked in a couple of agencies, I can say it exists in every police agency that I’ve worked for. I’ve said it before: SPD is not unique. I am not going to pretend like it doesn’t exist, because we are part of a larger society and that exists in our entire society. So it would be ridiculous to think that it doesn’t exist inside of any organization, including the police department. I don’t know where the hot spots are.

There are multiple investigations going on, and lawsuits. Frankly, there are mechanisms to do those investigations and to manage those lawsuits. I am going to look at what I’ve got in front of me, and what can I influence right now. If I see any evidence of that type of thing I will absolutely respond to it. But right now my focus is that we’ve got summer starting, we’ve got a staffing crisis. We have got to get our focus back on public safety, delivering service, not focusing on personnel issues.

Continue reading “Interim Police Chief Sue Rahr: “We Have a Lot of Work to Do.”” →

Police

Seattle Officer Who Struck and Killed Pedestrian Cited for Two Collisions Before He Was Fired by Tucson Police
The intersection of Dexter and Thomas, where police officer Kevin Dave struck and killed 23-year-old student Jaahnavi Kandula last year.

By Andrew Engelson

Kevin Dave—the Seattle police officer who killed 23-year-old pedestrian Jaahnavi Kandula last year while driving 74 miles an hour—was involved in two collisions in the span of a month before he was fired by the Tucson Police Department in 2013 for “failing to meet minimum standards” during his one-year training period.

PubliCola exclusively reported on Dave’s November 2013 firing in January. In April, we reported that SPD knew Dave had a “checkered history” in Tucson—including five internal investigations as a recruit and a possible drunk driving incident—but hired him anyway.

PubliCola obtained documents detailing Dave’s collision history in Tucson through a records request.

The documents reveal that Dave failed to promptly report one of the collisions to his superiors; that incident occurred while he was driving without valid insurance. After a second incident that occurred a month before Dave was fired, a supervising lieutenant wrote, “I am extremely concerned about this pattern of bad decision making. Ofc. Dave is not demonstrating the kind of personal responsibility and sound judgment we require from a Tucson Police officer.”

Tucson police classified the second incident as a “preventable collision.”

The first collision occurred on July 26, 2013. According to the report, Dave failed to yield to an oncoming car while turning left at a stop sign, striking the car and tearing off the bumper of his patrol vehicle. Dave got a ticket and the collision was ranked as a relatively minor incident; as discipline, he received “counseling” from his supervisor.

The second collision occurred exactly a month later, on August 26, 2013. While on a lunch break during training for rookie officers, Dave was driving his personal vehicle when he rear-ended another car. There were no injuries, but Dave’s vehicle deployed its airbags and had to be towed. The other driver’s car was totaled, according to the report.

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After Dave and the driver and Dave exchanged information, the driver Dave struck called the Tucson Police Department to tell them Dave was driving without valid insurance. The investigation found that Dave was at fault, did not have active insurance, and did not report the incident to his superiors until more than an hour and a half had passed. Investigators found that Dave violated the department’s conduct standards and recommended a ten-day suspension—though by the time the report was filed, Dave had already been fired. 

The report also noted that in August 2013, a personnel evaluation found Dave had been driving with expired registration for seven months. The supervisor filing the report wrote, “…I advised him officers were held to a higher standard. I also explained the hypocrisy of Officer Dave potentially citing citizens for the very violation he had been committing each day he was driving his vehicle with expired registration.” The officer noted that Dave told him he was having financial difficulties and had to decide which bills were most urgent.

Earlier this month, the Seattle Times reported that Dave had failed to pay a $5,000 fine for a negligent driving citation he received from City Attorney Ann Davison’s office for striking and killing Kandula in a crosswalk in South Lake Union. King County prosecutors declined to file any charges against Dave for the fatal collision. 

The Tucson investigation into the second collision concluded that Dave “has shown extremely poor judgment in the way he handled himself throughout this incident” and faulted him for not telling his supervisor about the collision promptly but instead simply saying he would not return from lunch. The report noted Dave also failed to inform supervisors that the airbags had deployed and that another passenger was in his vehicle at the time. As a result, “the incident was not properly investigated,” according to the report.

SPD’s communications department did not respond to a request for comment on Dave’s history on Tuesday.

 

City Council, Morning Fizz, Police

Officer Who Joked About Pedestrian Death Will Speak on Traffic Safety at Conference; Moore Calls for “More Vice Squads”

1. Daniel Auderer, the Seattle Police Officers Guild vice president who was caught on tape joking with SPOG president Mike Solan about the death of Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old student who was killed last year when SPD officer Kevin Dave struck her in a crosswalk while driving 74 miles an hour, was reassigned to low-profile office duties while the Office of Police Accountability investigates multiple complaints against him.

Despite Auderer’s notoriety, he will appear on a national stage in August, when he will be one of two speakers from the Seattle Police Department at national traffic safety conference put on by the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Washington, D.C.

UPDATE: After this post published, a spokesman for SPD contacted PubliCola to say that Auderer is not “representing” the department at the conference, but could not explain why Auderer and another officer, Tom Heller, are listed on the IACP’s program as Seattle Police Department representatives. The spokesman said SPD is not paying for Auderer to travel to or appear at the conference and did not receive a request for him to attend the conference and speak.

According to the program for the IACP’s Impaired Driving and Traffic Safety Conference, Auderer will lead a workshop called “Becoming a Pickup Artist: How to Get More Out of Interviews,” where he’ll teach other officers how to get accurate information out of crime victims, witnesses, and suspects “using only the power of human psychology.”

“From the roadside to the interrogation room, learn how to use human memory, perception, and motivation to improve investigations,” the panel description promises.

Asked about Auderer’s D.C. appearance and his current assignment within the department, a spokesperson said, “We don’t have any further updates or information concerning Auderer other than what has previously been provided.”

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2. Expanding on her proposal to restore a former law against “prostitution loitering,” City Councilmember Cathy Moore told a North Seattle public safety group yesterday that she would like to see “more vice squads” on Aurora Ave. North, a stretch of road where sex workers have congregated for decades.

“I know that SPD is doing their best, I think they have two vice officers. They need more vice squads,” Moore said. Mayor Bruce Harrell, Moore added, “is not coming to the table on this, and they’re not showing up in a way that they need to show up on Aurora. I have reached out to their office to talk about this. We as a council can’t do it all alone. They are in charge of everything [including] the resources.”

Councilmember Moore said she asked Police Chief Adrian Diaz for an update on SPD’s response to a damning report that revealed a widespread culture of misogyny in the department and “I did not receive a response.” She also called SPD’s PR response to four women’s lawsuit against the department “highly unacceptable.”

Moore, who represents North Seattle’s District 5, made her comments at a forum sponsored by the North Precinct Advisory Council Wednesday night. The forum also included District 4 Councilmember Maritza Rivera (Northeast Seattle) and District 6 Councilmember Dan Strauss (Northwest Seattle).

Rivera expressed her support for Moore’s proposal to bring back the prostitution loitering law, saying it was part of a “holistic” approach that should also include traffic calming measures to slow down cars on Aurora and give the area more of a “neighborhood feel.”

The city council repealed laws against prostitution and drug loitering on the recommendation of a work group convened in 2015 to support and reduce barriers for people with criminal history. According to the work group, the prostitution loitering targets people who are “already at high risk for trafficking, abuse, and other exploitation”—disproportionately women of color—and puts them at further risk. Prostitution itself is still illegal, but the city has only made 25 prostitution arrests since 2019.

3. Moore, along with her council colleagues Bob Kettle and Rob Saka, issued a statement Thursday morning expressing support for an independent investigation Mayor Bruce Harrell announced earlier this week, after four women announced their intent to sue over allegations of sexual harassment by Police Chief Adrian Diaz and communications office director John O’Neil. “We must address barriers to recruiting and retaining women sworn officers to make desperately needed progress on our public safety crisis,” she said.

Asked about the allegations at Wednesday’s meeting, Moore was more explicit, saying she asked Diaz for an update on SPD’s response to a damning report that revealed a widespread culture of misogyny in the department and “I did not receive a response.”

SPD’s “public relations response” to the charges was “highly unacceptable,” Moore added. The department issued a statement responding to the women’s claims that essentially called them all liars, saying their allegations were based on “individual perceptions of victimhood that are unsupported and – in some instances – belied by the comprehensive investigations that will no doubt ultimately be of record.”

 

 

Police, public safety

Seattle Police Knew Officer Who Struck and Killed Pedestrian Had “Checkered History,” But Hired Him Anyway
Seattle police officer Kevin Dave (SPD body camera footage)

By Andrew Engelson

According to internal emails PubliCola obtained through a records request, the Seattle Police Department knew while he was still an officer in training that Kevin Dave–the officer who killed 23-year-old pedestrian Jaahnavi Kandula last year while driving 74 miles an hour–had a “checkered history” at the Tucson Police Department, which fired him in 2013.

That history included investigations into a “preventable collision” and a conduct violation that earned him a 10-hour suspension right before he was fired. In addition, emails between the Tucson Police Department and SPD show that Tucson police believed Dave was intoxicated when he abandoned his truck in an alley after driving away from police “at a high rate of speed”; during that incident, which occurred about eight months after Dave’s firing, the two responding officers reported that Dave was belligerent and blamed TPD for his inability to get a job at other police departments.

As PubliCola previously reported, SPD knew before hiring Dave that he had been fired by the Tucson police in 2013 for failing to meet the standards required of new recruits during his 18-month probationary period.

 

The SPD emails, from 2020, include messages between an employee of the Tucson Police Department and SPD sergeant Christopher Young, who inquired about Dave after he was spotted “apparently filming the SPD facilities at Park 90/5” (an SPD training center on Airport Way) in August 2020. Young, who was investigating the incident at the training facility, asked the Tuscon police about Dave’s record there.

A TPD employee replied that while he was an officer in Tuscon, Dave was the subject of six investigations. These included two investigations involving the use of a firearm; two collisions (including one the department deemed “preventable”); one for filing an incomplete or inaccurate police report; and one for violating of the department’s “general standards of expected conduct.” 

That final charge was the one that led to Dave’s suspension in November 2013, the same month he was fired. The emails show that Dave received counseling for two of the other incidents—the preventable collision and the incomplete or inaccurate police report—and that the firearm incidents were ruled “justified” and unfounded, respectively.

In an email thread, Young alerted Sergeant Detective Eric Chartrand to his concerns about Dave, and Chartrand alerted Lieutenant Grant Ballingham. Ballingham, in turn, sent an email to Lt. Jonathan Lucas with SPD’s Employment Services Department, raising alarms about Dave’s “checkered past”—specifically, an incident after Dave was fired in which the former officer was “likely driving drunk and was able to park his vehicle and walk away before the police could catch him in the act.”

“I am not sure if Mr. Dave is still being considered as a prospective employee, but I thought it prudent to pass this information along in case you or the Background Unit were not already aware of this,” Ballingham wrote.

Lucas responded that the department had already hired Dave and that SPD’s “hiring process included a thorough background check to include all past employment history.” Continue reading “Seattle Police Knew Officer Who Struck and Killed Pedestrian Had “Checkered History,” But Hired Him Anyway” →

City Council, labor, Mayor Harrell, Morning Fizz, Police

Officer Who Killed Pedestrian Got Recruitment Bonus, Decent Wages for City Workers Will Add Tens of Millions to Budget Gap

1. Kevin Dave, the officer who struck and killed 23-year-old student Jaahnavi Kandula in January 2023, was part of the cohort of new recruits who received $15,000 bonuses under the first of former mayor Jenny Durkan’s police recruitment programs. The plan, adopted in February 2019, provided $7,500 to new police recruits and $15,000 to officers transferring “laterally” from other departments. Dave was previously an officer in Tucson, Arizona, but was fired from that previous position in 2013 after failing to meet minimum standards during his 18-month probation period.

Dave’s personnel file, obtained by PubliCola reporter Andrew Engelson, indicates he received the $7,500 bonus in two payments in exchange for agreeing to stay at the department for three years after his hire date in November 2019.

Durkan, along with then-police chief Carmen Best, argued for hiring bonuses in 2019, 2020, and 2021 on the grounds that they would help SPD recruit a younger, more diverse cohort of police officers. Dave, a white man, checked “I choose not to disclose this information” next to demographic questions about his race and gender—an unusual move (in 2023, all 41 SPD recruits provided this information) that, if widely adopted, would muddy SPD’s demographic data and could make the department appear more diverse than it is.

SPD could announce how it will discipline Dave, as well as Daniel Auderer—the Seattle Police Officers Guild vice president caught on tape laughing over Kandula’s death—as early as this Friday. Last week, Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison announced she was giving Dave a traffic ticket for second-degree negligent driving, an infraction.

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2. A text-based poll sent to Seattle residents this week asked about how the Seattle City Council should close a $230 million budget gap this year, along with a list of quality-of-life questions that reflect items the city could prioritize for funding or target for cuts. Among questions about policing, homelessness, and crime, the poll included a number of questions about the state of downtown Seattle—a top priority for Mayor Bruce Harrell and business groups like the Seattle Metro Chamber—and taxes.

One question asked whether, after “rais[ing] taxes to fund new programs and initiatives” for several years, the city should “maintain the spending levels and programs in place today and raise new taxes to cover this $230 million deficit” or ” work to offset the deficit by prioritizing government basics, supporting our city’s most vulnerable residents, and reducing non-critical spending before considering tax increases.” Other questions ask whether respondents would feel safe visiting downtown Seattle during the day and at night; “how much impact … closing encampments in parks, on sidewalks, and on other public right of ways would have on improving quality of life in Seattle”; and whether they agree that “Downtown Seattle cannot fully recover until the homelessness and public safety problems are addressed.”

It’s unclear who is behind this poll, which mentions the city council but not the mayor. Harrell has indicated he does not plan to propose any new taxes to close the budget gap, and city departments are already making plans for significant budget cuts amid an ongoing hiring freeze.

3. Meanwhile, Harrell announced that he and the Coalition of City Unions have reached a tentative agreement that will provide a retroactive pay increase, known as a wage adjustment, of 5 percent for 2023 and a 4.5 percent wage adjustment for this year, for a total increase of 9.7 percent this year. (Because the 4.5 percent is an increase above the adjusted 2023 amount, the total works out to 9.7 percent rather than 9.5—math!) The final agreement, as we’ve reported, is a victory for the city unions, which dismissed Harrell’s initial 1 percent proposal as “insulting” and spent much of the last year fighting to increase it.

The final step is approval by the city council, which now includes several members who have suggested the city “has a spending problem” rather than a structural budget problem. Departments are reportedly coming up with plans to lay off employees if the mayor and council stick with their promises to eliminate the budget shortfall without raising new revenues. The new labor contracts are expected to add tens of millions of dollars to the budget this year and in 2025.

Courts, Elections, Morning Fizz, Police, public safety

City Attorney Disqualifies Judge from Criminal Cases, Issues Traffic Ticket to Officer Who Killed Student With His SUV

1. City attorney Ann Davison made two significant announcements via late-afternoon press release on Friday. First, she announced that the city’s criminal division chief, Natalie Walton-Anderson—whose last day was Friday—has issued a “standing affidavit of prejudice” against Seattle Municipal Judge Pooja Vaddadi disqualifying her from hearing criminal cases brought by the city attorney’s office.

The affidavit is a kind of peremptory challenge, similar to the challenges attorneys can make to disqualify jurors at at trial; in addition to the standing order, the city attorney’s office has to file an individual challenge in every case they want removed from Vaddadi’s courtroom.

In an internal memo about Vaddadi, Walton-Anderson said she often reversed other judges’ findings of probable cause or failed to find probable cause “in situations where, clearly, probable cause exists,” releasing people accused of DUI and domestic violence without considering their criminal history or the severity of the offense.

Additionally, Walton-Anderson said in a statement, “The resounding input from attorneys that have appeared in her courtroom is that her decisions demonstrate a complete lack of understanding, or perhaps even intentional disregard, of the evidence rules, even on basic issues.”

Vaddadi worked as a public defender for 10 months before challenging then-presiding judge Adam Eisenberg in 2022.

Filing a blanket affidavit of prejudice against a sitting judge is essentially the nuclear option, which is one reason the city attorney’s office hasn’t exercised it in recent memory. Pete Holmes, the former city attorney, considered filing one against Ed McKenna, a politically conservative former judge whom Holmes accused of violating the rules of judicial conduct, but didn’t—reportedly because it would be an extraordinary act against a separately elected official. The King County Department of Public Defense, however, did, arguing that McKenna was biased against defendants and disqualifying him from cases repeatedly during his final two years in office.

The blanket affidavit isn’t technically permanent, since the city attorney’s office could just stop filing individual affidavits, but it will force the court to move Vaddadi to an assignment that doesn’t involve deciding criminal cases, like hearing challenges to traffic infractions. We have reached out to Vaddadi, the city attorney’s office, and municipal court presiding Judge Faye Chess, and will post an update when there’s more to report.

2. Also on Friday evening, Davison announced that her office will be issuing a traffic ticket to Kevin Dave, the officer who struck and killed 23-year-old student Jaahnavi Kandula in a crosswalk while driving 74 miles an hour—three times the speed limit. The infraction, second-degree negligent driving, carries a fine of up to $5,000. The city attorney will not file criminal misdemeanor charges against Dave.

Last week, as PubliCola reported, the King County Prosecutor’s Office announced that it would not file vehicular homicide charges against Dave because he was responding to a “legitimate, life-threatening call” as he sped down Dexter Avenue. That call was an “overdose” to which the police later said Dave was responding “as a paramedic,” suggesting he had to get there right away. However, as we reported last year, the caller was awake, lucid, and standing outside his apartment building as he told 911 operators he was afraid he had taken too much cocaine.

County prosecutors also said the fact that Kandula stepped into the crosswalk while Dave gunned his SUV in her direction could serve as a defense at trial, where Dave’s attorneys could argue it was a “superseding cause” that contributed to Kandula’s death. In its legal analysis, the county prosecutor’s office noted that the standard of proof for reckless driving—”willful or wanton disregard” for safety—is higher than the requirement for vehicular homicide, which only requires that a person is driving in a “reckless manner.”