The state of our nation’s police has certainly been in disarray over the past few years.
Ever since the “defund the police” movement that kicked off a few years ago with George Floyd’s death, we’ve seen thousands of officers leave their post, and budgets unnecessarily slashed by higher-ups that don’t seem to realize the damage they’re doing.
What’s more, it has put those within these departments at odds, with some forcing the termination of officers due to a certain political placement.
That’s what we’re seeing with Daniel Auderer. He’s a former Seattle police officer who has filed a $20 million suit against his department, citing that persons within the department have leaked false information about him in an effort to discredit him.
What’s more, they went through with “wrongfully initiated disciplinary proceedings” when it came to his firing.
Chief Sue Rahr fired Auderer following a reported wording caught on his body cam following the death of 23-year old Jaahnavi Kandula. He reportedly said, “But she is dead. She was 26 anyway, she had limited value.”
Auderer, however, notes that this wasn’t making light of her death, but rather discussing how callous the legal system has become.
All the same, this was potential reason for Rahr to act. However, Auderer believes it was a move that was made because of his recent position as president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild.
We’ve seen unions and departments at odds before, especially when higher-ups get involved. You know, the ones who control funding or decision-making when it comes to taking care of others. But it sounds like Auderer’s case is much more severe.
That’s because, according to him, leakers within the department released personal information — some of it false — including his home address. Rahr hasn’t made any sort of statement about this, but it’s likely, with the lawsuit, that we’ll see some sort of potential investigation.
I don’t know all the facts on this one. However, I can tell you that Seattle’s police department has been having issues for some time.
Never mind the political folks above them that have slashed their budget to ribbons and limited their officers out in the field. This seems like a new kind of severity — and one that wasn’t needed.
So it doesn’t surprise me in the least that Rahr would act on this without looking further into Auderer’s actions, mainly because of the position he held with the union. She even made an interesting note about this following his firing, noting “how to fairly balance ‘intent versus impact.’”
It’s true that an officer is monitored with this bodycam and anything they say can be used for reports and what-not. But without all the details — and a more thorough investigation — it almost makes it seem like Auderer’s firing was unjustified.
Again, I don’t have all the details, but it just seems too cut-and-dry to let him go and not provide the greatest of reasoning behind it. Not to mention that they try to make Rahr look too good with Seattle’s police department, insisting that the move is her “first step in firmly addressing cultural issues at SPD.”
I think “cultural issues” is the least of their worries. They should be more concerned with getting the proper funding to take care of their officers, rather than hastily cutting loose someone due to their positioning.
We’ll see what comes out of this lawsuit in the months ahead. But it might just be a wake-up call for the Seattle Police Department to focus on what’s important: looking less into political issues and instead focusing more on the officers at hand.
And, more importantly, making sure that an officer’s information is kept discreet, and not “leaked” poorly as we saw with this department.
But it just goes to show how much disarray certain departments are going through right now.
Hopefully the next president — fingers crossed for Trump — will restore the funding they need to get back to normal. Because, otherwise, we could very well see more cases like this that make people question the value of police officers.
And considering everything we’ve been through over the past few years, that is the last thing we need right now.
(Editor's Note: This opinion column does not constitute an endorsement of any political party or candidate on the part of Newsmax.)
Michael Letts is the Founder and CEO of In-Vest USA, a national grassroots nonprofit organization helping to re-fund police by contributing thousands of bulletproof vests for police forces through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs. His commitment to justice and professionalism in law enforcement is unwavering, and he has over 30 years of law enforcement experience. Read More Michael Letts reports — Here.