Rahr’s firing clears the way for a smooth transition for incoming SPD Chief Shon Barnes, but advocates argue more work is needed to prevent police misconduct.
On Monday, interim Seattle Police Department (SPD) Chief Sue Rahr announced her decision to fire SPD Officer Kevin Dave. Dave was driving 74 miles per hour in response to an overdose call almost two years ago when he killed graduate student Jaahnavi Kandula while she was in a crosswalk.
The Office of Police Accountability (OPA) found Dave had violated four SPD policies, including an officer’s responsibility to modulate emergency response when appropriate and to use emergency lights.
The OPA’s investigation shows that Dave was involved in a previous collision on the job in the fall of 2021, less than a year and a half before he killed Kandula, which was deemed “preventable.” Dave also failed to use his audible siren during this earlier collision. When the OPA asked Dave about training he received in response to the incident, he characterized it as “a 90-second conversation of ‘drive better.’”
“I believe the officer did not intend to hurt anyone that night and that he was trying to get to a possible overdose victim as quickly as possible,” Rahr wrote in an email to the department explaining her decision to fire Dave. “However, I cannot accept the tragic consequences of his dangerous driving. His positive intent does not mitigate the poor decision that caused the loss of human life and brought discredit to the Seattle Police Department.”
She followed this up with a reminder to officers not to “lose sight of the danger that is created by excessive speed when responding to emergency calls.”
This echoed sentiments expressed by Rahr when she fired Officer Daniel Auderer last summer when she wrote: “The actions of this individual police officer have brought shame on the Seattle Police Department and our entire profession, making the job of every police officer more difficult.”
The case brought international attention to SPD when body camera footage came to light of Auderer laughing and making callous jokes about Kandula’s death. “Yeah, just write a check,” Auderer said. “Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26, anyway. She had limited value.”
After Auderer was fired, he filed a $20 million claim against the City, saying he was retaliated against for his union leadership. Auderer was the elected vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG).
Clearing the decks for a new chief
Interim Chief Rahr is expected to step down later this month when Mayor Bruce Harrell’s new pick for police chief, Shon Barnes of the Madison Police Department, will be sworn in as SPD’s new interim chief. Harrell announced his nomination on December 20 right before the holidays, without a public forum of the top candidates for the job as has been done in the past. Barnes will not wait for the city council confirmation process to take over the job.
In her short seven-month tenure, Rahr also oversaw the departure of her (and former Chief Adrian Diaz’s) second-in-command, Deputy Chief Eric Barden, who announced his retirement last month after controversy centered around domestic violence allegations and an investigation into whether he had lied to police about it. The latter led to him being provisionally placed on Pierce County’s Brady List, a list of police officers with potential credibility problems.
After keeping Diaz on in SPD after his demotion from police chief in the spring, Harrell finally chose to fire him in December, saying Diaz lied to investigators about the nature of his relationship with an employee, namely his chief of staff. As a result, Diaz is being placed on King County’s Brady List.
During her tenure, Diaz’s predecessor Carmen Best was also caught up in scandal, in her case around the abandonment of the East Precinct and the ensuing coverup, which include a bevy of missing text messages. In fact, no SPD police chief has lasted more than four years in the position since Gil Kerlikowske, who served from 2000 to 2009.
When she was appointed, Rahr presented herself as a temporary expert who could help lead SPD through a transition to a more stable and trusted department. Her decisions to fire Dave and Auderer give Barnes a clean slate with both the SPD rank and file and SPOG so he can assume leadership with the best chance of rising above the persistent scandals that have plagued both his predecessors and the department as a whole.
Rahr appears aware of the fact her decision might not be popular, writing in her email announcing Dave’s termination that “I understand and accept that many will not agree with this decision.”
Reactions to Dave’s firing
Councilmember and Chair of the public safety committee Robert Kettle supports Rahr’s decision. “First and foremost, this is a tragic situation, and my condolences go out to the family of Jaahnavi Kandula,” Kettle said. “To Chief Rahr’s termination of the officer, I support her decision. Her action demonstrates that our police accountability system is working.”
Community Police Commission (CPC) Co-Chair Joel Merkel expressed his own support. “Jaahnavi Kandula’s death is a tragedy. She should still be with us today,” Merkel said. “The community expects SPD officers to follow department policies and that there is a strong, fair, and transparent police accountability system for when they don’t. The community also expects to be safe when officers respond to emergencies. That’s why last year the community worked with the CPC to strengthen safety requirements in the SPD emergency response driving policy.”
But Merkel had a slightly different take on how Seattle’s police accountability system is working.
“While Chief Rahr’s decision to fire Kevin Dave shows how the Seattle Police accountability system can work, the full 2017 Police Accountability Ordinance must be adopted into the next SPOG contract to truly rebuild the community’s confidence in SPD,” Merkel said.
The most recent interim SPOG contract, negotiated by Harrell’s office and approved by the City Council last year, was the second such contract that failed to implement the 2017 Police Accountability Ordinance. As a result, Seattle’s accountability system has many loopholes and weaknesses that can be exploited, including an elevated standard of proof of misconduct that is higher than that of three quarters of police departments.
Seattle’s newest and most progressive councilmember, Alexis Mercedes Rinck, agreed additional improvements can be made.
“This action marks a step towards accountability. While I believe this was the right decision, we must also recognize this does not bring back Jaahnavi Kandula to her family and community nor does it address the systemic issues that contributed to her death,” Rinck said. “I continue to express my deepest condolences to her family for this tragedy, and remain committed to improving accountability in the public safety system that failed her.”
The Seattle Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (SAARPR), a community group that works to fight police racism and violence, credited years of advocacy for Rahr’s decision.
“Kevin Dave’s termination from the Seattle Police Department has finally come after two years of relentless pressure from activists and community members for justice for the killing of Jaahnavi Kandula,” SAARPR wrote. ”By keeping this pressure up, we refused to let the city forget that the people’s trust in the SPD had been irreparably damaged by Kevin Dave’s recklessness. The city tried to sweep this under the rug, and the only reason Sue Rahr finally decided to fire Dave was because we refused to let them do so.”
A long two-year wait
Last February the King County Prosecutor’s Office said they had insufficient evidence to charge Dave with a crime based on his actions leading to Kandula’s death. They would have needed to prove that Dave “was impaired by drugs or alcohol, driving in a reckless manner, or driving with disregard for the safety of others.”
Once the Prosecutor’s Office had passed, the Seattle City Attorney’s Office issued Dave a citation for second-degree negligent driving, which came with a $5,000 fine. However, Dave challenged the traffic ticket, and his case wasn’t resolved until last month, when he agreed to pay the fine as well as complete an eight-hour traffic safety course and complete 40 hours of community service.
During this period, PubliCola uncovered the information that SPD had known when they hired Dave that he’d had a “checkered history” with the Tucson Police Department, which fired him in 2013. Dave had been the subject of six investigations during his 18 months in Tucson, two of which were collisions, one of which was deemed “preventable.” The Tucson Police Department also recorded an incident after Dave’s firing when he was allegedly engaged in drunk driving.
In spite of these discoveries, the Seattle City Council has thus far not initiated any public oversight over SPD’s backgrounding process, which allowed Dave to be hired in the first place. Kettle did not respond to The Urbanist’s inquiry as to whether the public safety committee would be doing so this year.
PubliCola also discovered Dave didn’t have a valid Washington driver’s license at the time he hit and killed Kandula. He didn’t reinstate his Washington license until April of 2024, after the traffic citation had been issued by Seattle Municipal Court.
OPA investigators found that Dave’s Washington driver’s license showed “surrendered out of state.” In the investigation, a Washington State Department of Licensing official confirmed that a surrendered license means that the Washington license was no longer valid. The OPA report also shows Dave only took one emergency vehicle operations course that doesn’t appear to have covered SPD’s emergency vehicle operation policy.
“In response to this incident, I’ve requested the department to update its emergency vehicle operation policies and conduct more training, which have been limited due to a number of issues,” Kettle said. “The department recently updated its policy in line with our request and with input from the Community Police Commission, it has also acquired facility time to conduct emergency vehicle training, which provides a space to practice beyond academy training.”
The OPA waited for the legal cases against Dave to be resolved before completing their own investigation, the results of which led to Rahr’s decision to terminate Dave’s employment with SPD.
Because this process took nearly two years, Dave received his regular SPD salary for all of 2023 and 2024, as well as a lump sum payment of backpay negotiated by the most recent SPOG contract. His total compensation for this time period is estimated to be over $300,000.
At the time of his hire, Dave also benefited from a lateral officer hiring bonus of $7,500.
The SAARPR pointed out that while they see the decision to fire Dave as a victory, they don’t think he should have been allowed to retain his driver’s license, nor do they think he should be allowed to become a police officer in another jurisdiction, an option that currently remains open to him.
Looking forward
In September, the family of Kandula filed a wrongful death and negligence lawsuit against both Dave and the City for $110 million plus the $11,000 alluded to in Auderer’s comment. The lawsuit claims SPD was negligent to have hired Dave, given his history in Tucson, and points out the issue of his Washington State driver’s license being expired. The lawsuit also calls into question SPD’s vague emergency driving policy at the time and Seattle’s unsafe street design.
PubliCola reported that should a jury choose to award the full amount to Kandula’s family, it would be the largest personal injury claim ever paid out by the City.
It is unclear what impact, if any, the decision to fire Dave could have on this ongoing case.
Amy Sundberg is the publisher of Notes from the Emerald City, a weekly newsletter on Seattle politics and policy with a particular focus on public safety, police accountability, and the criminal legal system. She also writes science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels. She is particularly fond of Seattle’s parks, where she can often be found walking her little dog.