Police Oversight In King County Has ‘Low Power,’ Councilmember Says

The office that investigates the King County Sheriff’s Office keeps hitting bumps.

The latest hiccup: Director Patti Cole-Tindall has been hired by the sheriff’s office, bringing her into the agency she has been monitoring for almost a year.

Frustrated, the King County Council wants to strengthen the role of the Office of Law Enforcement Oversight, or OLEO. The council hopes a charter amendment on the November ballot would do that.

King County Councilmember Larry Gossett the oversight office “unfortunately has very low power.”

Gossett said the office needs the authority to do investigations. The charter amendment would broaden the office’s investigatory powers.

Since 2006, the office has faced objections from the King County Police Officer’s Guild. The latest union contract helped the office in some ways: Staff are now guaranteed access to the scenes of major investigations and to subsequent review boards.

But it also placed new restrictions on the office’s access to investigation records. Oversight staff are not allowed to print or download records, and the sheriff can cut off access to the oversight office in certain cases without clear criteria.

“If they can’t print documents and they can’t download documents, and the sheriff can decide to turn off their access to information with no real oversight from any other body, there is the potential for oversight to essentially be turned off,” said Brooke Leary, who helped write a recent audit.

King County Sheriff John Urquhart said he doesn’t see the need for changes.

“Is there a clamor from the public? No,” Urquhart said. “I challenge the council to come up with any citizen that’s called them up to say, ‘Oh my god. You have to fix OLEO, it’s a farce!’ I’m not getting those calls. I guarantee you the council is not getting those calls."

Urquhart said he sought to restrict access to records at the request of the King County Council, after the stormy tenure of the first oversight office director, Charles Gaither.

“You’ve got to remember, we’ve only had civilian oversight that works for less than a year because of the prior director who was clearly problematic,” Urquhart said.

Gaither ultimately sued the county and settled the lawsuit last fall.

King County Auditor Kymber Waltmunson said the amendment would help the office.

The office has never had staffing or authority comparable to the Seattle Police Department’s oversight office, which classifies and investigates all complaints.

The oversight office’s role has instead been to monitor those investigations and make suggestions. But a recent audit by the King County Auditor found numerous impediments to its effectiveness.

Waltmunson said an audit shows that the office doesn’t “have the independence to create a credible oversight system.”

The oversight office is intended to work jointly with the Sheriff’s Internal Investigations Unit to make sure complaints of misconduct involving Sheriff’s employees are properly investigated.

The oversight office was also intended to build public trust and to make recommendations to improve sheriff’s office operations. Civilian oversight has expanded around the country following the police shooting in Ferguson and amid new calls for accountability.

Urquhart said he supports the charter amendment “as a symbolic gesture,” but he blasted the timing of it, saying candidates to run OLEO permanently have all withdrawn because of the political uncertainty.

Now Cole-Tindall’s departure will mean a new interim director at the very least.

Urquhart said his willingness to make tough decisions has earned the community’s trust. He said he’s fired 17 deputies “for cause” since being elected in 2012.

The oversight office’s website contains no news or signs of activity beyond 2013, other than a 2014 annual report.