Week in Review: police, drug laws, and AI regulation

Bill Radke discusses the week’s news with Seattle Times David Kroman, host, writer, and producer Angela Poe Russell, and KUOW’s Dyer Oxley.

Seattle's Office of Police Accountability is investigating union leaders after body-camera audio seemed to capture them laughing about the death of a woman fatally struck by a police cruiser. Officer Daniel Auderer, vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, left his body camera running when he called Guild President Mike Solan shortly after 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula was hit. Only Auderer’s side of the conversation is audible in the body-camera footage. He's heard laughing repeatedly and says Kandula had, quote "limited value." Auderer claims his comments were mocking lawyers and taken out of context. What’s the discipline process here?

Former Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and former police chief Carmen Best are legally off the hook for deleting thousands of texts in 2020. The King County Prosecutor's office announced Tuesday they will not charge Durkan or Best. The prosecutor's office says the deletion of important messages came during what they describe as "a perfect storm of training delinquencies and outdated and conflicting policies and procedures." City officials deleted thousands of messages from their phones that were exchanged during the 2020 racial justice protests. The King County's Prosecutor had asked the sheriff to investigate the missing texts more than a year ago. Is it just that prosecutors didn’t think they could prove criminal intent?

Later this month, the Seattle City Council is expected to consider a new version of the state’s drug possession law. This follows the proposal’s approval by the council’s Public Safety committee Tuesday. The proposal would allow the Seattle City Attorney to prosecute drug possession and public use as gross misdemeanors. The new proposal emphasizes that police should divert drug users to services, and that arrests should be a last resort. Is Seattle going to arrest people for having and publicly using drugs?

A Senate committee asked Microsoft President Brad Smith and other experts to testify Tuesday on what AI regulations should look like. Microsoft supports AI guardrails, and that it has safety measures in place. But it’s calling on the government to pass additional laws around AI. A Senator questions whether Microsoft is to be trusted and compares the downsides of AI and social media. What should we know about who’s regulating artificial intelligence and how?