VANCOUVER, Wash. — A new Washington state agency is set to take over investigations into fatal police shootings and other deadly use-of-force incidents in Southwest Washington starting in December. Investigations are currently conducted by teams of neighboring law enforcement agencies.
The Washington State Office of Independent Investigations (OII) was created in 2021 based on the recommendation of a task force that Gov. Jay Inslee convened on how to investigate police use of deadly force. The OII is led by a civilian director and is intended to eventually include civilian investigators on its teams, according to the agency's website.
The director is supported by a board that include both law enforcement and civilian members, although the board can only give advice and cannot make decisions about which cases to investigate or how to conduct the investigations.
OII will begin its operations in a phased rollout that divides the state into six regions and incorporates them one at a time, starting Dec. 1 with "Region 1," which is composed of the state's Olympic Peninsula, coastal and southwest counties: Thurston, Lewis, Mason, Clark, Clallam, Grays Harbor, Pacific, Jefferson, Kitsap, Skamania, Cowlitz and Wahkiakum counties.
The agency's investigations will initially only focus on cases where a law enforcement officer uses deadly force that results in death during the incident, according to a Tuesday news release from OII.
"This is a significant milestone for our agency and the state of Washington. I arrived here two years ago when we did not have employees, infrastructure, policies, or a training program. What we had was a singular mission to conduct fair, thorough, transparent, and competent investigations. It has taken a lot of hard work to reach this point. I am proud of what we are building,” OII Director Roger Rogoff said in a statement.
"While starting in stages is not ideal, this strategy will allow OII to begin investigations with the team we have now, while we continue to grow," Rogoff continued. "This is the first step to being an independent investigation agency for the entire state."
The Region 1 team will include experienced investigators trained in homicide and use-of-force cases as well as new investigators undergoing field training, led by a supervisor with "extensive training and experience" in use-of-force investigations, according to the news release.
"Sometimes, people get confused. We are not an oversight organization. We are not looking over other people doing these investigations," said Rogoff. "Our investigators will be put at the scene collecting the evidence, interviewing witnesses, collecting body cam video and collecting any other surveillance video. All of that work will be done by us."
OII will expand into each of the other five regions as soon as it has enough personnel and infrastructure in place to effectively respond to incidents, according to the news release. The agency currently has 22 investigators on staff and more in the hiring process, and estimates it will require about 15 to 18 investigators in each region to function effectively.
But why the phased approach?
"It's simply a function of where our resources are, where our investigators are. In order to respond to an incident that occurs anywhere in the state, we have to have enough investigators in that area so that we can respond in a timely manner," explained Rogoff.
"As soon as we have enough investigators in those regions, we will be ready to proceed in those regions as well. So, my hope is that in short order, we begin opening in other regions as well after Dec. 1, 2024."
The agency will also have a "family liaison" role for each region — a person tasked with providing information to the families of people killed by police and connecting them with support — as well as a Tribal Relations Program to provide tribal leaders with updates about investigations that impact tribal members, according to the news release.
OII tells KGW this is the first agency of this kind nationally. He added that other states have independent investigation teams that usually run as part of an attorney general's office, while the OII is not part of any existing organization and is completely independent.