Tag: Jaahnavi Kandula

King County, Police, public safety

Officer Who Killed Jaahnavi Kandula While Driving 74 MPH Will Not Face Felony Prosecution
Felony traffic prosecutor Amy Freedheim and King County Prosecutor Leesa Manion point to locations on a map of Dexter Ave., where Seattle police officer Kevin Dave struck and killed 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula in January 2023.

By Erica C. Barnett

King County Prosecutor Leesa Manion will not prosecute Seattle Police Department officer Kevin Dave in the killing of 23-year-old international student Jaahnavi Kandula last year. Manion’s office informed Kandula’s family of the decision Wednesday morning and discussed it with reporters this afternoon.

According to senior deputy prosecutor Amy Freedheim, who deals with felony traffic cases, the office can prosecute people for vehicular homicide  only under three circumstances: If the person is impaired by drugs or alcohol, if the person is driving recklessly, or if the person is driving with a “disregard for the safety of others,” which requires a “conscious disregard for safety,” Freedheim said.

“In the case of a police officer on a legitimate call, using lights and sirens, they are authorized to exceed the speed limit,” Freedheim said, adding that in this case, that the officer was “on a legitimate, life-threatening call”—that is, an overdose call.

The police department initially claimed Dave was responding to an emergency “at the request of” Seattle Fire Department first responders; later, they said he was heading to the scene “alongside” SFD to provide backup because people coming out of opiate overdoses can be violent or unpredictable. Later still, Police Chief Adrian Diaz said Dave was responding “as an EMT” to a medical emergency.

In reality, the caller was lucid and standing outside his South Lake Union apartment when he called 911 to report that he might have used too much cocaine.

Dave was driving a police department SUV 74 miles an hour on Dexter Ave., which has a speed limit of 25 miles an hour, when he hit Kandula, who was entering a marked crosswalk when she saw Dave’s vehicle approaching and appeared to panic, running further into the crosswalk in an attempt to escape.

The three chairs of the Community Police Commission—Rev. Harriett Walden, Rev. Patricia Hunter, and Joel Merkel—issued a statement questioning the prosecuting attorney’s finding that Dave’s driving did not meet the legal standards for recklessness or disregard for others’ safety. “At what speed would Officer Dave have had to drive for his emergency response to be considered reckless or disregarding the safety of pedestrians in the area?” they wrote.

In a jury trial, deputy prosecuting attorney Freedheim said, “any defense attorney [for Dave] would be looking at the superceding cause”—that is, the fact that Kandula stepped into the street while a police officer was approaching. Manion added later that the office did not intend to blame Kandula for running, but “we would still have to look at her decision to run” in deciding whether to prosecute Dave.

As we’ve reported, SPD’s emergency driving policy is vague, advising officers that they should engage in emergency driving when there is “legitimate concern for the preservation of life” and “only when the need outweighs the risk.” These policies, according to Manion, were not part of her office’s decision not to press charges; even if Dave was driving negligently, that would be a civil matter, not a potential felony.

Prosecutors said they also had to consider Kandula’s actions—that is, her decision to step into a part of the marked crosswalk that the office says was in the “lane of travel”—because “it is against the law to suddenly leave the curb and move into the path of a vehicle that is so close it is impossible for a driver to stop.”

In a jury trial, Freedheim said, “any defense attorney [for Dave] would be looking at the superceding cause”—that is, the fact that Kandula stepped into the street while a police officer was approaching. Manion added later that the office did not intend to blame Kandula for running, but “we would still have to look at her decision to run” in deciding whether to prosecute Dave.

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Three other witnesses reported hearing lights and sirens; in fact, Dave had “chirped” his siren at the intersection of Dexter and Thomas before accelerating to 74 miles an hour on Dexter.

SPD referred the felony traffic case to the prosecutor’s office last summer. Since then, the office has delayed making a decision repeatedly—most recently in October, when the office announced it was hiring an outside consultant to  to analyze in-car and body-worn video and other materials submitted by the Seattle Police Department as part of the investigation.

Prosecutors—highlighting the contrast between Dave’s behavior and that of Seattle Police Officers Guild vice president Daniel Auderer, who was caught on body camera footage joking with SPOG president Mike Solan about Kandula’s death—pointed to the fact that Dave was “appropriately upset” in the aftermath of the collision and immediately began administering CPR to Kandula.

“This has nothing to do with Auderer and his deplorable comments,” Freedheim said.

Manion said she was not authorized to comment on what Kandula’s family said to her when they spoke. “I do know that there are some people who will be disappointed in my decision,” she said.

Manion said she has scheduled a second call with Kandula’s family, including her mother, and would meet with members of the Community Police Commission and representatives from Indian American Community Services. Last month, members of IACS appeared at a CPC meeting to call for changes to SPD’s emergency driving policy, expressing outrage at the idea that any emergency would justify driving so fast on a city street.

In their statement, the CPC co-chairs said the commission is “currently finalizing recommendations to SPD regarding much-needed changes to
their vague emergency vehicle operation policy. SPD must adopt policies that protect life and do not put the community at further risk.” They also said the the CPC will continue looking into the “apparent policy of SPD responding to Seattle Fire Department responses to drug overdoses. The community deserves more answers from SPD and SFD as to why Officer Dave was responding to an overdose call in the first place.”

Dave is still employed by SPD. The Office of Police Accountability confirmed it will renew its own investigation of Dave, which has been on pause while the prosecutor decided whether to pursue felony charges. The formal complaint against Dave accuses him of behaving unprofessionally and violating the emergency driving policy, among other potential violations.

Police, public safety

Officer Who Killed Jaahnavi Kandula Was Fired from Previous Police Job; Indian American Community Members Say SPD’s Emergency Driving Policy Must Change

1. According to a document obtained from the Tucson Police Department, Seattle police officer Kevin Dave, who struck and killed 23-year-old student Jaahnavi Kandula in a South Lake Union crosswalk with his police SUV in 2022, and who formerly worked as a police officer in Tucson, was fired from the Tucson Police Department in 2013 after failing to meet the standards required of new recruits during his 18-month probationary period as a new recruit. 

The document, a list of officer separations at the Tucson Police Department between 2012 and 2014, did not contain specific reasons for Dave’s firing. The King County Prosecutor’s Office is currently determining whether to prosecute him.

A report PubliCola obtained through a records request reveals that the Office of Police Accountability (OPA) investigated Dave in 2020 in response to an anonymous complaint by a fellow SPD employee. That report shows that OPA looked into several claims against Dave, including an internal rumor that Dave had been previously fired by a police department in Arizona. The report (which was not shared with Dave) said Dave’s “previous employer and reason for separation were known to the SPD Background Unit at the time of the named employee’s hiring by SPD” and determined there was no need for further action.

When asked about the circumstances of Dave’s separation from the Tucson Police Department, John O’Neil, a spokesman for SPD, declined to comment.

OPA found that other claims in the anonymous employee complaint were minor or unsubstantiated, including a complaint that Dave bragged about how easy it was to obtain “bump” stocks for automatic weapons in Arizona, and a claim that Dave suggested playing “Fuck the Police” by NWA at the SPD academy graduation.

A hairpin turn at the racetrack where SPD recruits drive as part of their training. Photo credit: Joe Goldberg from Seattle, WA, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

2. Leaders in Seattle’s Indian American community expressed disappointment on Wednesday at what they described as an ongoing lack of information and accountability for Kandula’s killing. As PubliCola was first to report, Dave was driving 74 miles an hour, three times the speed limit, in response to a call from a South Lake Union resident who thought he might be overdosing on cocaine.

“Most [SPD] officers out here are some of the best drivers in the world,” SPD Officer Mark Mullens, a Community Police Commission member, said. “Our training is some of the best in the world,” he added, and is “well worth the $500,000” it costs to rent a racetrack in Kent where officers practice high-speed driving.

The Community Police Commission invited representatives from Indian American Community Services (IACS) to discuss SPD’s emergency vehicle operations policy, which establishes vague parameters for when cops can drive at high speeds and violate traffic laws, at their meeting Wednesday morning.

Many of the speakers expressed outrage at the idea that any emergency would justify driving so fast on a city street. Footage from inside Dave’s car shows that he was unaware of Kandula’s presence in the crosswalk until the instant before he hit her; at speeds above 70 mph, the fatality rate for vehicle-pedestrian collisions is almost 100 percent. Had Dave been going 50 mph, or twice the speed limit, SPD’s own forensic analysis concluded the collision would not have happened.

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“I have spoken to people in all manners of crises, and I know myself as a human being if I was in crisis, and I wanted a police response, I would still want them to respond to me in a way that doesn’t endanger somebody else’s life,” Bipasha Mukherjee, a longtime crisis hotline volunteer, said.

“I would imagine that as a human being you would think, okay, I am response to a drug overdose … and I need to respond as quickly as possible. But and can should I be driving down Dexter Avenue at 74 miles an hour to do that?,” Mukherjee continued. “I hate to say this, but it just seems like very basic common sense to not do it, which then makes me wonder what was going on in the officer’s mind that made him think that this was a legitimate response.”

CPC member Mark Mullens, an SPD officer, said CPC commissioners should attend SPD’s emergency driving course, which includes high-speed driving on a racetrack in Kent, before recommending any policy related to emergency driving. “Most [SPD] officers out here are some of the best drivers in the world,” Mullens said. “Our training is some of the best in the world,” he added, and is “well worth the $500,000” it costs to rent a racetrack in Kent where officers practice high-speed driving.

New recruits must go through a 40-hour course in emergency driving when they join the police force, but it’s unclear whether SPD conducts re-training on a consistent basis and what’s involved in that training; PubliCola has reached out to the department for more information.

SPD has not released information about what discipline, if any, Dave has received, and the King County Prosecutor’s Office has not revealed whether it will prosecute him. “There’s been a lack of transparency,” IACS volunteer Sriram Rajagopalan said, “and we in the community are left in the dark. .. Officers are making comments that are about [Kandula’s] life not mattering, which is just further making the community feel like we don’t matter.”

—Andy Engelson, Erica C. Barnett

Density, Development, legislature, Police, Transit

State Rep Says Inclusionary Zoning Near Transit Will Prevent Displacement, SPD General Counsel Filed Initial Complaint Against Laughing Cop

1. State Rep. Julia Reed (D-36), who’s sponsoring legislation (HB 2160) that would mandate on-site affordable housing in new developments near some transit stops in exchange for modest increases in density, spoke with PubliCola last week about her bill, which we called a “timid transit-oriented development bill” compared to last year’s more ambitious proposal.

Reed’s bill would allow low-density multifamily housing within a quarter mile of officially designated bus-rapid transit stops (like the RapidRide in Seattle), and larger apartment buildings within a half-mile of rail stations—a smaller radius than last year’s transit-oriented development bill, which would have allowed greater density in more areas that are not currently dense. Reed said she fought to widen the geographic scope of the bill and to include bus stops with frequent service, as opposed to official BRT routes, but was shot down. “I’m one vote out of 98,” she said.

As with last year’s bill, which  died shortly before the end of session, Reed’s proposal wouldn’t impact areas that are already dense.

In addition to enabling some transit-oriented development, Reed’s is also an inclusionary zoning bill—for every new housing development near transit, the bill would require 10 percent of units be affordable to low-income people. Developers oppose such mandates, arguing that they prevent housing from being built. Low-density buildings like row houses and fourplexes, for example, would have to have one affordable unit each, which developers have said would require them to make the market-rate units too expensive to rent or sell.

In addition to enabling some transit-oriented development, Reed’s is also an inclusionary zoning bill—for every new housing development near transit, the bill would require 10 percent of units be affordable to low-income people.

Reed disputes this. “I think it’s curious that affordability is always held up as the killer of development and never interest rates, or labor costs, or material costs, or the fees that cities themselves are charging on top of development regulations,” Reed said. “I’ve asked them to work with us on a compromise that ensures that we will have some affordability built in and they haven’t been willing to present one.”

2. In response to a records request, PubliCola has received a copy of the initial complaint against Seattle Police Officers Guild vice president Daniel Auderer, caught on body camera footage laughing and joking about the killing of pedestrian Jaahnavi Kandula by a speeding officer, Kevin Dave, last January. The complaint, submitted on August 2 by SPD general counsel Rebecca Boatright, confirms (again) that Auderer’s claim to have proactively “self-reported” himself to the Office of Police Accountability, filing a request for rapid adjudication of the case, was false.

Jason Rantz, a conservative commentator for KTTH radio, first reported Auderer’s self-serving version of events as a so-called “Rantz exclusive,” saying Auderer filed a complaint against himself before anyone else could because he feared his comments would be “taken out of context to attack the Seattle Police Department (SPD).” Rantz never corrected his inaccurate reporting, which was regurgitated by right-wing media around the country.

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Boatright became aware of Auderer’s shocking comments, made just hours after Kandula was struck and killed by SPD officer Kevin Dave while Kandula was walking in a marked and lighted crosswalk, from another SPD employee reviewing video footage from that night. Boatright’s complaint, filed at 11 am on August 2, quoted Auderer’s side of the conversation with Solan, in which he said “She [Kandula] is dead,” then laughed and, responding to something Solan said, added: “Yeah, just write a check. $10,000 – she was 26 anyways, she had limited value” before laughing again.

“These allegations, if proven, would violate” SPD’s policy on professionalism, Boatright wrote.

Dozens of other people, including the Consul of India in San Francisco, filed complaints against Auderer, which were rolled into Boatright’s initial complaint. That complaint is still pending.

 

City Council, Density, Development, Elections, housing

Candidate Ron Davis Signs Anti-Upzoning Pledge, Democrats Blast Bob Kettle’s Misleading Ad; Prosecutors Seek Second Opinion in Police Crash Case

1. City Council candidate Ron Davis, who frequently touts his urbanist cred (The Urbanist called him an “urbanist supervolunteer“) signed a pledge written by the U District Community Council attesting that he will never vote to upzone University Way NE, AKA The Ave, during his council tenure. Davis is running to represent District 4, which includes the University District, against Maritza Rivera, who declined to sign the pledge.

The pledge, which takes the form of a letter to Mayor Bruce Harrell and the city council, says in part:

Preserving the unique quality that small independent businesses bring to the city and maintaining a pedestrian- friendly experience on this narrow street are critical to the sustainable development of this urban center.

You will recall that both candidates for our position on the council in the previous election cycle endorsed a similar letter in support. We will follow their lead and agree to not upzone The Ave during our tenure on the council.

The Ave is a special and historic place. Preserving it provides a serious public good, directly experienced by hundreds of thousands of people every year.

Former District 4 city councilmember Rob Johnson agreed to a plan to remove the Ave from a 2017 upzone that was part of the city’s Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda, or HALA; the upzones increased the amount of density allowed along arterial streets, where apartments were already legal, and modestly increased housing capacity in some former single-family-only areas. Neighborhood activists and small businesses rallied against upzoning the Ave, arguing that taller buildings (and more housing) in the U District’s commercial core would destroy the neighborhood’s character.

“As you know, I’m not a fan of using historic preservation style actions to create private benefits,” Davis told PubliCola. “But I’ve always thought that where preservation creates significant public benefit (in this case, preserving one of our few human scale, walkable, downtown style gathering places in Seattle) and it is open to the public, it makes sense to consider preservation if the benefits outweigh the costs.” Davis added that the rest of the city needs to be upzoned, not just commercial areas, and said downtown Ballard and Pike Place Market were similar areas that “don’t need high rises.”

Earlier this week, Davis sent out a fundraising email lambasting “the giant corporate developers (Master Builders Association) that have done so much to make Seattle expensive” for “dumping upwards of $100K on behalf of Rivera.” The Master Builders, Davis’ email continued, were the same “people who rewrote our tree legislation so it would be easier to cut down trees like Luma the Cedar in Wedgwood.”

Asked why she didn’t sign, Rivera told PubliCola, “I’m not comfortable signing a blanket pledge about this—or any other—complicated policy issue where the policy proposal’s details are unknown. As I told the UDCC, if I’m elected in November, I am committed to bringing a thoughtful approach to reviewing any proposal that is put before me.”

Earlier this week, Davis sent out a fundraising email lambasting “the giant corporate developers (Master Builders Association) that have done so much to make Seattle expensive” for “dumping upwards of $100K on behalf of Rivera.” The Master Builders, Davis’ email continued, were the same “people who rewrote our tree legislation so it would be easier to cut down trees like Luma the Cedar in Wedgwood.”

The claim puts Davis’ position squarely in line with Alex Pedersen, the District 4 incumbent who has been the most vocal opponent of new housing on the council. Pedersen was out on the fringes of the council on this issue; Davis’ mailer echoes the misleading claims Pedersen made back in May when trying to scuttle a tree protection proposal that a supermajority of the council supported.

“Luma,” the name advocates gave to a large cedar tree that a developer planned to (legally) remove to build townhouses, became a rallying point for neighborhood activists who have long opposed new housing in historically single-family areas like Wedgwood—which, as Josh pointed out last month, was originally a dense forest that was razed by white colonizers who wanted to build a new whites-only neighborhood in the area. Pedersen’s attempt to derail the long-negotiated legislation failed 6-1.

The Democrats called Councilmember Sara Nelson’s claim about people dying because Lewis did not initially vote for the bill “unintentionally misleading at best, deliberately lying at worst.”

2. The King County Democrats issued a statement on Thursday condemning District 7 council candidate Bob Kettle for an ad (which PubliCola covered last week) that includes images of encampments and features Position 8 City Councilmember Sara Nelson, who blames District 7 incumbent Andrew Lewis for causing deaths due to drug overdoses by failing to pass her original version of a bill empowering the city attorney to prosecute people for having or using drugs in public.

In the video, Nelson says, “Andrew Lewis’ decision to block my drug bill cost the lives of too many people from fentanyl overdose. I trust Bob Kettle to do the right thing.”

The Democrats compared the ads to similar “Republican scare tactics” used by Sen. Patty Murray’s unsuccessful challenger Tiffany Smiley last year; Smiley’s ads included images of encampments and a boarded-up Starbucks on Capitol Hill.

“Most distressing of all is the use of individuals experiencing homelessness in Bob Kettle’s ad, likely without their consent. It is imperative that we treat all individuals with dignity, especially those experiencing homelessness who already face immense challenges. Using their struggles for political gain is not only ethically wrong but also demonstrates a shocking lack of empathy and understanding,” the Democrats said in their statement. 

The Democrats called Nelson’s claim about people dying because Lewis did not initially vote for the bill “unintentionally misleading at best, deliberately lying at worst.”

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3.  The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office announced Thursday that it has hired an outside collision reconstruction firm, ACES, Inc., to analyze in-car and body-worn video and other materials submitted by the Seattle Police Department for the prosecutor’s felony traffic investigation into Kevin Dave, the SPD officer who struck and killed 23-year-old student Jaahnavi Kandula as he was speeding to respond to a call nearby.

According to KCPAO spokesman Casey McNerthney, the prosecutor’s office will decide whether to file charges against Dave at some point after they review the video—and, potentially, reconstruct the collision scene itself. McNerthney said the prosecutor’s office will have another update—which could, but won’t necessarily, include a charging decision—in November.

As we’ve reported, the police and fire departments initially claimed Dave was responding “as an EMT” to an overdose nearby when he struck and killed Kandula in a crosswalk, elaborating later that police need to be on scene when the fire department is reviving people who have overdosed because they can be violent. PubliCola’s reporting later revealed that the caller had not overdosed, but was lucid and waiting outside his South Lake Union apartment building when he made the 911 call. As PubliCola reported, Dave was driving 74 miles an hour and did not have his siren on when he struck Kandula on Dexter Ave., which has a 25 mph speed limit.

Police

Police Guild Leader Defiant in Defense of Officer Who Joked About Death of 23-Year-Old, Saying Critics Should Feel “Shame”

By Erica C. Barnett

In an interview with an investigator from the Office of Police Accountability, Seattle Police Officers Guild director Mike Solan claimed that SPOG vice president Daniel Auderer was processing a “tragic event” with “sarcasm and humor” when he laughed and joked about the death of Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old student who had just been struck and killed by a speeding SPD officer, Kevin Dave, earlier that evening.

Solan then blasted Auderer’s critics, suggesting that OPA director Gino Betts had informed media about the video and accusing unnamed people of engaging in a witch hunt against the department.

“I would like the director to answer publicly… why this case is already out in the media,” Solan said.

“People [who] use this unfortunate audio captured on body-worn video, which was unintentional, to gain a political strategy against the union and against officer Auderer—I think does the family that lost their loved one a disservice and makes them be re-victimized. Anybody that supports that ideology and supports that tactic should feel shame.”

PubliCola obtained the interviews and related documents from the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, which is conducting a criminal investigation into Dave’s actions, through a public disclosure request. Half an hour after PubliCola became the first media outlet to post the video, SPD posted the video on its own blog.

“[As] police officers, we deal with tragedy almost on a daily basis, and we’re human beings just like the next person,” Solan told the investigators. “We have to process these in a manner that allows us to go to that next tragic event. And humor and sarcasm is used for us as a coping mechanism.”

In his interview, Auderer did not express contrition for his comments, saying it was a “private conversation” that could just as easily have taken place “over a beer” or “on a street corner.” Given that he thought the conversation with his union director was private, he continued, “No, I did not violate that policy.”

In the video, Auderer can be heard laughing repeatedly for several seconds at a time, then joking about the value of Kandula’s life.

“I think she went up on the hood, hit the windshield, then when he hit the brakes, she flew off the car. But she is dead,” Auderer said, then laughed for several seconds before replying to something Solan said. “No, it’s a regular person. Yeah.”

“Yeah, just write a check,” Auderer continued. Then he laughed again for several seconds. “Yeah, $11,000. She was 26 anyway, she had limited value.” At this point, Auderer turned off his body camera and the recording stopped.

The video does not capture Solan’s part of the conversation, which both Solan and Auderer have described as “mocking” the lawyers who will ultimately decide how much the city has to pay Kandula’s family for her death.

In his own interview with an OPA investigator, Auderer said that when someone dies, “you can either laugh or cry. … You’re laughing over the absurdity of people suddenly being here one moment and not the next.”

In his interview, Auderer did not express contrition for his comments, saying it was a “private conversation” that could just as easily have taken place “over a beer” or “on a street corner.” Given that he thought the conversation with his union director was private, he continued, “No, I did not violate that policy.”

The video is from the night Kandula died—January 23, 2023. An SPD employee who eventually saw the tape filed a complaint on August 2. Six days later, Auderer wrote a letter to OPA director Gino Betts asking for a “rapid adjudication” of his case, a process in which OPA foregoes an investigation in cases involving “minor or moderate” SPD policy violations. Rapid adjudication requires an officer to admit they violated department policy. Auderer is accused of violating SPD’s policy requiring officers to behave professionally.

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Betts denied Auderer’s request for a speedy resolution seven minutes after he sent it, saying that “OPA does not consider this case a candidate for Rapid Adjudication.”

In his interview with OPA, Auderer said he asked for an expedited response to his case not because he believed he had violated SPD policy, but “in order to explain it if somebody started asking questions. That was more important to me than [the threat of] being disciplined.”

Solan fiercely defended Auderer in his interview with OPA, calling him a “pillar in this department” who had “served his community for decades, leading in arrests.” Auderer has been an SPD officer for about 14 years—not decades—and has been the subject of dozens of allegations of using excessive force, behaving unprofessionally, and other violations of SPD policy.

“I find it unconscionable that this rapid adjudication inquiry to the [OPA] director was not taken serious,” Solan said. “SPOG looks forward to the closure of this investigation to make sure all the facts are put out there for context, if we’re talking about policy, loss of human life, and transparency and the understanding that officers need to feel as if the accountability system has their best interests in mind.”

Solan told investigators his side of the conversation was not recorded, and has not given an explanation that includes the actual “humor[ous]” comment that made Auderer laugh, nor what he said to make Auderer respond, “No, she’s a regular person.” According to OPA, no complaint has been filed against Solan for taking part in the conversation.

Both the OPA investigation and King County’s criminal investigation into Dave are ongoing.

City Council, Drugs, homelessness, King County, Mayor Harrell, Police

Burien Makes “Camping” Ban Worse, Auderer Now on Red-Light Camera Duty, Harrell Order Subtly Improves New Drug Law

1. On Monday night, the Burien City Council expanded the number of hours per day in which being unsheltered will soon be illegal, changing the daily deadline for homeless people to be off the streets from 10 pm to 7 pm. The change, an amendment to the sleeping ban the council passed just one week earlier, bans people from “living on” public property between 7 in the evening and 6 in the morning.

During Monday’s meeting, Burien City Attorney Garmon Newsom II said the city decided to make the adjustment after learning that many shelters “begin making their decisions” about who to admit around 4:30 in the afternoon; by 10pm, most are closed and “it would be too late” to take people there. By starting the ban earlier in the evening, the city seems to believe it can plausibly say shelter was “available” and that people refused to accept it, making it legal for police to remove or arrest unsheltered people from the streets.

Signs of camping, according to the ordinance, include “bedding, cots, sleeping bags, tents or other temporary shelters, personal belongings storage, and cooking equipment use or storage.”

During the meeting, Newsom inaccurately claimed the new proposal actually increases “the amount of time they are able to camp” by allowing “camping” between 7 pm and 6 am; in fact, it does the opposite, making it illegal to be unsheltered in public spaces between those hours. Councilmember Cydney Moore, who opposed the underlying ordinance, tried to correct the record, prompting a brief back and forth with Newsom that Mayor Sofia Aragon cut off, saying Moore should limit her comments to “these technical changes.”

The council’s agenda also suggests proponents were confused about what the amendment does. According to the bill description, it “clarifies, consistent with the council’s previously stated intent, that there will be no camping outside of the hours stated in the ordinance. At this time, the proposed amendment would change the start time for camping from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.” In reality, it changes the start time when “camping” is illegal.

Before voting for the change, deputy mayor Kevin Schilling said the King County Sheriff’s office had signed off on the change. A spokesman for King County Executive Dow Constantine told PubliCola Tuesday that the county still has not made a decision about whether and how to enforce the law.

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2. Daniel Auderer, the Seattle Police Officers Guild vice president caught on body-worn video joking with guild president Mike Solan about the killing of 23-year-old student Jaahnavi Kandula by another police officer, Kevin Dave, has been reassigned to review red-light camera footage and sign traffic tickets, PubliCola has learned.

Only a handful of officers are assigned to red-light camera duty at a time. Often, these officers are near retirement or, like Auderer, have been removed from patrol duty because of a complaint or other problem with their performance.

Auderer’s comments came to light when the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, which is considering criminal charges against Dave, released the video to PubliCola and a reporter for the Seattle Times in response to records requests.

The Community Police Commission has called on Police Chief Adrian Diaz to put Auderer on leave without pay until the OPA complaint is resolved.

The changes are subtle—so subtle PubliCola didn’t notice them when we wrote about the executive order last week. The order reinstates language saying officers “will” determine the level of threat and make reasonable efforts to divert people from arrest when possible, and restores language Nelson deleted saying that officers should not arrest a person “absent articulable facts and circumstances warranting such action.”

3. In his executive order order clarifying how SPD should implement a new law criminalizing public drug use last week, Mayor Bruce Harrell mostly restated the language in the underlying bill, which says police should try to divert people to social service programs that will help them address their drug use instead of resorting immediately to arrests. But the EO includes a couple of subtle tweaks that could undo changes Councilmember Sara Nelson inserted at the last minute to give officers extra discretion to make arrests.

The changes are subtle—so subtle PubliCola didn’t notice them when we wrote about the executive order last week. They’re about the words “will” and “may.” In her amendments, Nelson changed language stating that officers “will” determine whether a person poses a threat of harm to self or others, and language stating that officers “will make reasonable efforts to” use diversion rather than arrest to say that officers “may” do both things, making each decision completely discretionary.

Harrell’s executive order reinstates language saying officers “will” determine the level of threat and make reasonable efforts to divert people from arrest when possible, and restores language Nelson deleted saying that officers should not arrest a person “absent articulable facts and circumstances warranting such action.”

Mayoral spokesman Jamie Housen told PubliCola, “As was discussed extensively during Council debate, the legislative branch cannot direct the actions of executive branch employees through legislation. Mayor Harrell has made it clear that under this bill he wants officers to conduct a threat of harm assessment and that diversion is the preferred outcome rather than further criminal legal system engagement.”

Under the language Nelson added to the bill, there would be little recourse if officers decided, using their broad discretion, to arrest every person using drugs in public without determining if they posed a threat, and no legal reason for officers to try to get people into diversion programs instead of arresting them.  By changing both words back to “will”—in the implementing executive order, if not the legislation—Harrell strengthened the bill (which, we feel obligated to add, still does not require diversion or fund any new diversion programs).