Seattle officer violated policy by laughing about woman’s death, watchdog agency says

The Office of Police Accountability announced Tuesday that Seattle officer Dan Auderer broke policing standards when he made “inhumane” comments and laughed about a woman who was struck and killed by a police vehicle last year.

Gino Betts, director of the Office of Police Accountability, Seattle’s police watchdog agency, in a press release described Auderer’s comments as “derogatory, disturbing, and inhumane.”

“The officer’s comments undermined public trust in the department, himself, and his colleagues,” Betts said. “For many, it confirmed, fairly or not, beliefs that some officers devalue and conceal disparaging views about community members.”

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Exactly one year ago Tuesday, a different officer, Kevin Dave, was driving more than 70 miles per hour to a 911 call when he struck 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula on Dexter Avenue North. Kandula, an Indian graduate student, was taken to Harborview Medical Center where she died.

A Seattle Police employee initiated the investigation when they forwarded body-worn video that captured a conversation between Auderer, who is the vice president of SPOG, Seattle's police union, and Mike Solan, its president.

In the video Auderer is heard laughing and saying “She is dead,” laughing some more and then saying, “Yeah, just write a check. $11,000, she was 26 anyway. She had limited value.”

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In a statement released by SPOG last September, the guild said the comments were meant to mock lawyers that would “bargain over a tragedy,” and argued that only one side of the conversation was captured and it lacked necessary context.

A discipline meeting was held Tuesday, in which the accountability office and the officer’s chain of command discussed the investigation’s findings.

The accountability office sent its recommendation for discipline to Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz, who will make the final call on punishment matters.