SEATTLE — The Seattle police officer who was heard joking and making insensitive comments about 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula's death in January of 2023 violated policy, according to the Office of Police Accountability (OPA).
A discipline meeting was scheduled for Tuesday where OPA and Officer Daniel Auderer's chain of command would discuss the findings and forward any recommended disciplinary action to the chief of police.
OPA found Auderer violated the Seattle Police Department's professionalism and bias-based policing policies by laughing about Kandula's death and stating she had "limited value," along with making other remarks.
In a prepared statement, OPA Director Gino Betts Jr. said Auderer’s words were “derogatory, disturbing, and inhumane.”
“The officer’s comments undermined public trust in the department, himself, and his colleagues,” Betts said. “For many, it confirmed, fairly or not, beliefs that some officers devalue and conceal disparaging views about community members.”
Auderer was previously "administratively re-assigned to a non-operational position."
On Jan. 23, Auderer was dispatched to assist with a collision after another officer, on his way to an emergency, struck and killed Kandula while she was in a crosswalk in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood.
In the body camera footage, Auderer, who was not involved in the January collision, was captured in the video saying, "but she is dead" and laughing while on the phone.
"She was 26 anyway," Auderer said in the video. "She had limited value."
An employee with the Seattle Police Department alerted OPA to the video.
After the bodycam video was brought to light, Auderer wrote a letter to OPA where he explained he was not making fun of the death but instead mocking the callousness of the legal system.
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