In a conversation with Mike Solan, the head of the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild, Seattle Police Department officer and SPOG vice president Daniel Auderer minimized the killing of 23-year-old student Jaahnavi Kandula by police officer Kevin Dave and joked that she had “limited value” as a “regular person” who was only 26 years old.
In the video, taken in the early morning after Dave hit Kandula in a crosswalk while speeding to respond to a call from a man who believed he had taken too much cocaine, Auderer says he has talked to Dave and he is “good,” adding that ” it does not seem like there’s a criminal investigation going on” because Dave was “going 50 [mph]—that’s not out of control” and because Kandula may not have even been in a crosswalk. Auderer added that Dave had “lights and sirens” on, which video confirmed was not true.
In fact, as we reported exclusively, Dave was driving 74 miles an hour in a 25 mile per hour zone and struck Kandula while she was attempting to cross the street in a marked and well-lighted crosswalk.
“I think she went up on the hood, hit the windshield, then when he hit the brakes, she flew off the car. But she is dead. No, it’s a regular person. Yeah, just write a check. Yeah, $11,000. She was 26 anyway, she had limited value.”—Seattle police officer Daniel Auderer, joking with police union president Mike Solan about the death of pedestrian Jaahnavi Kandula earlier that night.
“I don’t think she was thrown 40 feet either,” Auderer told Solan. “I think she went up on the hood, hit the windshield, then when he hit the brakes, she flew off the car. But she is dead.” Then Auderer laughed loudly at something Solan said. “No, it’s a regular person. Yeah.”
We have asked SPOG via email what Solan asked that made Auderer clarify that Kandula was a “regular” person, as opposed to another type of person Dave might have hit.
“Yeah, just write a check,” Auderer continued. Then he laughed again for several seconds. “Yeah, $11,000. She was 26 anyway, she had limited value.” At this point, Auderer turned off his body camera and the recording stops.
Joel Merkel, the co-chair of Seattle’s Community Police Commission, called the video “shockingly insensitive.
“I was just really struck by the casual laughter and attitude—this was moments after she was killed,” Merkel said. “You have the vice president of SPOG on the telephone with the president of SPOG essentially laughing and joking about the pedestrian’s death and putting a dollar value on her head, and that alone is just disgusting and inhumane,” Merkel said.
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I asked a cop a sort of sensitive question once (if I would be legally justified if I shot a dog that was aggressive) and she turned off her body cam to answer. I had to remind her to call it in (in the jurisdiction she worked in, cops have to let their dispatcher know if they are turning off their cam for any reason). She called it in after I told her to. She had no idea that (at the time) I was one of the dispatchers for that jurisdiction.
She answered the question as I was pretty sure she would, and I got why she didn’t want a recording of her saying it. But also, she didn’t lie or anything so I don’t know why she thought it was necessary.
I had to remind her to turn it back on (and let her dispatcher know!)
Cops are dumb about their cams. You’d think if you were really confident in your ability to do your job correctly you wouldn’t be worried, but hey, maybe they are just not that good at their jobs.
Dangerous game to ask a cop for legal advice. Doesn’t have to be accurate and they have no obligation to tell you the truth. I get it in that situation, because it sounds like it was a what-if scenario, but no one should trust any legal advice from a cop.