SEATTLE P D OFFICER FIRED FOR INAPPROPRIATE LAUGHTER

By Bob Walsh

Officer Daniel Auderer

 

Daniel Auderer, 49, was until very recently a Seattle P D officer and the #2 at the Seattle Police Officers Guild, which is the union representing Seattle P D officers.  He is now unemployed.

Back in January of 2023 he responded to an officer-involved traffic fatality.  His job was to determine if the driver, Officer Kevin Dave, was under the influence at the time he ran down Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year old grad student, who was in a crosswalk at the time she was struck.

 

Jaahnavi Kandula 

 

 

Shortly after the incident Officer Auderer was on a phone call with the SPOG President, Mike Solan, when he made some very unfortunate remarks about the value of the life of Ms. Kandula.  Officer Auderer has said that his remarks were meant to be disparaging of auto accident attorney's and not Ms. Kandula.  Unfortunately for Auderer neither Interim Police Chief Sue Rahr nor Mayor Bruce Harrell nor the director of the civilian Office of Police Accountability, Gino Betts Jr., were impressed by this assertion.

The then-chief, Adrian Diaz, had decided that Auderer would be put on the beach without pay for 30 days.  That penalty, however, was not finalized and the new Interim Chief decided to sack him.  Auderer's comments were asserted to be "vile, inhumane, disturbing, derogatory and disrespectful."  The conversation was picked up by a body cam and was not meant to be made public, at least by Auderer and Betts.

The driver in question, Officer Kevin Dave, was doing 74 MPH when he nailed Knadula in a crosswalk.  The impact threw her 130 feet.  The dash cam shows her speeding up in an apparent effort to beat the Ford Explorer marked vehicle.  She didn't make it.  Officer Dave was cited by the city attorney for misdemeanor negligent driving and fined $5,000.  

The city and the officer's guild have been enmeshed in a sometimes tense contract negotiation for some time.  They are also trying to get out from under 12-years of a federal oversight program.  Former Chief Diaz is still employed by the Seattle P D on "special projects."   The new Interim Chief, Sue Rahr, was formerly with the Kings County Sheriff's Office.