OLYMPIA, Wash. — A new state agency was mandated to start investigating police use of deadly force cases on July 1, but it appears it actually won’t be ready to handle those investigations for months.
“It’s just a lot to get done. Standing up an office from nothing is incredibly difficult,” said Roger Rogoff, appointed last month by Gov. Jay Inslee to head up the state’s newest agency, the Office of Independent Investigations.
Under current law, when a police officer in the state uses deadly force, detectives from surrounding agencies, typically from the same county, investigate the incident and refer the case to county prosecutors for charging decisions.
Under the state law passed last year, the newly formed agency and its up to 80 civilian employees has the authority to conduct investigations of deadly force use by police officers. Those investigations from the state will be the ones presented to county prosecutors.
Rogoff said it’s not clear how his agency will handle future investigations.
There are dozens of positions to fill, policies and procedures to write. The agency does not have a permanent workspace, or even a state logo yet.
When asked about what the public might think about the agency missing its first deadline, Rogoff said the work is too important to rush.
“I think we’d be falling out of the gate if we started conducting investigations when we weren’t ready to conduct investigations,” said Rogoff. “If we sent people out to crime scenes who stumbled all over themselves and didn’t know what they were doing.”
Rogoff, a former King County prosecutor and Superior Court judge, said the judicial system is due for the kind of changes that could result from his new agency.
“Anytime you don’t have trust after some of the instances we’ve seen over the last ten year, there’s absolutely room to do it differently,” said Rogoff. “And that’s what we’re hoping to do.”
No other state has an agency that independently investigates incidents of police use of deadly force.
“Our job is to do confident and unbiased, anti-racist investigations and to do this in the right way,” said Rogoff.