Rantz Exclusive: Terminated Seattle officer Dan Auderer says he is victim of leaks, anti-union animus

When Dan Auderer was fired by the Seattle Police Department’s (SPD) interim chief following an investigation into an out-of-context joke made during a private conversation that was mistakenly recorded by his body-worn camera, he was blindsided.

“I would have never thought, in any part of my mind, that I would ever be terminated from the Seattle Police Department for anything,” former officer Auderer told “The Jason Rantz Show.” “It was not only my career, but it was a way of life for me. And it never crossed my mind I’d be in the position to be terminated. And in this case, this particular case, no, I was absolutely shocked that that occurred.”

Auderer’s shock is understandable. Under the previous police chief, the plan was to issue him a 30-day suspension. City lawyers were convinced there wasn’t enough to justify termination, and the decision was already being drafted. But after an investigation plagued by internal leaks, pressure from City Hall and activists, and a last-minute change in findings, Interim Chief Sue Rahr abruptly fired Auderer.

Since the incident in January and the termination that led to a $20 million tort claim against the city, Auderer had remained silent. But now, he’s breaking his silence in an exclusive interview with “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH.

What led to the termination of Seattle officer Dan Auderer?

On January 23, 2023, a Seattle officer was speeding to the scene of an overdose emergency. Dashcam footage showed Jaahnavi Kandula attempting to run across a crosswalk as the officer’s patrol cruiser approached. Tragically, she was struck and killed.

Following the collision, Auderer was called in to test the officer for possible impairment, as required by department policy. The test was conducted at the West Precinct, and it was determined that the officer — who was later cleared of any criminal wrongdoing — was not impaired.

After the testing, while driving home alone in his patrol vehicle, Auderer called Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) president Mike Solan to discuss the accident. As the vice president of SPOG, Auderer recognized that this had become a union issue.

“You’re speaking about getting help to officers if they need it. You have to arrange wellness (services). You have to arrange for attorneys. You have to start thinking about how this affects them long term. That’s the union’s job,” Auderer said of the conversation.

The conversation in context

Auderer said that he and Solan were horrified by the accident. Their conversation eventually turned to how the city’s attorneys might respond.

“We operate in an arena, and we see these things happen all the time. And I don’t mean just the collisions, but the way the legal system plays out,” Auderer said. “There’s the real world and then there’s the legal world. And we, constantly trying to make fair out of an unfair world, are constantly lamenting the fact that these two different worlds exist, and very often have two different realities.”

During this conversation, Auderer’s bodycam was unintentionally activated. According to Auderer, the new system, which he was not yet fully trained on, can be triggered automatically—such as when lights are activated or when a nearby officer’s bodycam starts recording. It was at this moment that Auderer says he was sarcastically mocking the way city attorneys might dismiss Kandula’s life to justify a minimal settlement.

“Yeah, just write a check. $11,000. She was 26 anyway. She had limited value,” he said at the time.

Auderer adamantly denied the media portrayals suggesting he was mocking Kandula’s death.

“Absolutely not. I spent too much time and seen way too many things to mock anyone’s death, and I’m horrified that her family’s continually pounded by this story. It weighs on me, and it’s something that will never, ever go away in my say soul,” Auderer said.

Auderer tried to take responsibility

Dan Auderer didn’t anticipate that an off-handed joke mocking lawyers would spiral into a major controversy. In hindsight, he admits that was naïve.

“I couldn’t imagine what would happen with it,” he recalls.

At the time, the comments were flagged internally during a review and Auderer admitted to the unprofessional comments, even though they were made during a private conversation between union officials. He requested rapid adjudication from the Office of Police Accountability (OPA). This streamlined process allows an officer to acknowledge a policy violation and accept the punishment, thus avoiding a prolonged investigation. Auderer didn’t think an extended inquiry would be necessary since everything was already recorded.

“My intent was — punishment was secondary to me — to having the ability of the PD, the police department, to explain it. And normally, they would have to remain silent during an investigation. So I thought, well, this is going to be more helpful, if we can just rapidly do this, and they’ll be able to explain it, and we can move on. Naive of me,” Auderer said.

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Rapid adjudication was quickly denied

Auderer said he emailed OPA Director Gino Betts the request for rapid adjudication.

“That was denied within, it’s comical, less than 15 minutes,” Auderer said, wondering if Betts even read the email.

At that point, Betts had 30 days to classify what possibly policy violation they’re going to investigate. They went with policy concerning “professionalism.”

“Once that complaint was classified, that evening I started to get media inquiries, and then I knew something was wrong,” Auderer said.

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And then came the leaks

Dan Auderer said that media members informed him his name had been leaked in connection to the comments captured by his bodycam, and specific footage was being requested. The Seattle Times and a local blogger critical of the police were among the first to learn about the complaint via a leak.

How would anyone even know the video existed or what was said? Auderer suspects the leak came from the Office of Police Accountability (OPA) as a way to target him for his union activism. Several sources, speaking anonymously to “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH, shared the belief that OPA leaked the complaint to the Community Police Commission (CPC).

“I was shocked because this complaint was just filed. Since when do we do this? Since when do we leak names? And it became evident very quickly that it was an attack on the union, and we’re going to prove that,” Auderer said.

It was around this time that “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH became aware of the complaint. At the time, Auderer did not respond to a request for comment.

“I probably frustrated you at the time. Because if you recall,” Auderer said. “I told you, ‘I can’t tell you anything that puts me in administrative danger. I have to follow the rules.’ And that was naïve. The rules were not being followed, but it certainly wasn’t me (who leaked it). I was on the east side of the mountains teaching a class totally removed when I found out about it.”

‘Darkest chapter of my life,’ says Dan Auderer

While Dan Auderer was playing by the rules, despite the leaks, he endured immense emotional turmoil.

“The darkest chapter of my life. The damage it does to your psyche, especially … when you spend a substantial amount of your career trying to make fair out of an unfair world, none of it is fair. It’s really hard to settle that in your head,” he explained.

Auderer wasn’t the only one suffering. His family struggled to understand why the city was allowing this flawed process to move forward.

Finally, the OPA completed its investigation.

Nearly a year after the incident, in a January 18, 2023 memo, OPA Director Gino Betts concluded that Auderer had acted unprofessionally. However, the investigation also determined that “there is insufficient evidence that (Kandula’s) race, gender or age factored into (Auderer’s) unprofessional commentary.”

But just a few days later, according to an internal Seattle Police Command Staff memo, Betts had a change of heart.

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A sudden change of heart

Betts reportedly met with the Office of Inspector General after his initial findings were finalized. He then submitted a revised memo, concluding that Auderer had committed bias policing through ageism.

The decision to even consider bias in this case puzzled many. Auderer knew very little about Kandula — only that she was a female in her mid-20s. He didn’t know her name, age or race and was never even at the scene of the accident.

The Command Staff memo suggests that this change was made to justify terminating Auderer and to appease perceived community demands.

“This late reversal, without citing any additional facts, raises concerns,” the memo concluded. “Bias (along with dishonesty) is the single-most stigmatizing allegation that can be brought against a person in law enforcement. It is serious and needs to be managed with care and focus. Here, the allegation was added as a late reversal of a process that initially did not identify bias as an issue in this case, only considered bias on the recommendation of the Office of the Inspector General (noting community concerns), and after affirmatively determining the facts did not support a bias finding only days before.”

The Command Staff memo warned that this could lead to litigation.

Pressure campaign

While leaks plagued the investigation and Betts altered the findings, the decision to discipline or fire Auderer ultimately rested with then-police chief Adrian Diaz. However, Diaz himself was under pressure from City Hall.

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell confronted Diaz during a Seattle Police Foundation event, demanding that Auderer be fired. The conversation was semi-public, adding to the pressure and making it clear the mayor wouldn’t be staying out of what was supposed to be an independent decision. The mayor’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Diaz vacillated but, in the end, sources with direct knowledge tell “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH that he had decided to suspend Auderer for 30 days. City lawyers reportedly determined they couldn’t justify firing Auderer for bias and began drafting the disciplinary action.

However, as the language for the discipline was being finalized, Diaz was removed from his position following a series of high-profile lawsuits, one alleging predatory behavior toward female officers. After his termination, Diaz publicly came out as gay in an exclusive interview on “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH.

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It took seven seconds to fire Dan Auderer

Former King County Sheriff and Executive Director of the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission Sue Rahr was appointed as interim chief on May 29.

It didn’t take long for her to dismiss concerns from Command Staff and city lawyers and move to terminate Auderer. Rahr fired Auderer, not personally, but through an assistant chief who summoned him to headquarters on the afternoon of July 17.

“It took seven seconds,” Auderer remembered.

Auderer said he was in a state of shock afterward. He didn’t even get a chance to tell his family because “by the time I got into my car, walking out of headquarters, the media was already reporting it.”

Rahr sent a department-wide email announcing the termination. She argued that because so much damage had supposedly been done by the release of the bodycam footage, she had no choice but to act. She told “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH that she wasn’t aware of the Diaz plan to suspend for 30 days and that the mayor’s office did not contact her about Auderer.

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Officers react to termination

Officers were swift in their condemnation of the decision, some telling “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH that it would lead to even more officers leaving the already depleted department.

Auderer, who is well-respected in the department, has heard from them too. Their concern is that private conversations as they let off steam after witnessing the end result of graphic violence.

“One moment, you’re at a horrific scene. Something that the average individual would look at and remember and lament, and you know it would resonate with them. With officers, especially experienced officers, you’re doing that over and over and over and over again. It never stops,” he said.

He said he can “understand how somebody that’s inexperienced would say, ‘Well, that would make you callous.'” But Auderer rejected that conclusion.

“It doesn’t. Quite the opposite. It makes you very sensitive to people, and it makes you a student of human nature as well, which is another part of the job that I really miss,” he said. “But to get that out of your system, to move on to the next call, you have to do that. And I don’t know why we’re now pretending that it doesn’t occur, because it’s very well known.”

Dan Auderer filed a $20 million tort claim and has a message to officers

Dan Auderer filed a $20 million tort claim against the city for the faulty investigation that led to his termination. In the claim, Auderer alleged the termination was retaliation for his union leadership.

Would he ever go back to policing in Seattle if it was allowed? He said he “can’t say I wouldn’t” because it’s “such a large part of who you become, and those people become your family, and being removed from that is extremely difficult.”

While he figures out what’s next for his career, Auderer did have a message for officers feeling dejected over what happened. He doesn’t want them to lose faith in the job that they’re doing; a job that he loved doing.

“What I would say to my colleagues is what they’re doing is noble. However, don’t let this stop you from doing what’s right. You’re going to have to move forward, find something within that profession that you can become great at and excellent, and move forward and do that,” he said. “There are bright days ahead. It can’t be dark forever. So don’t stop doing what you’re doing, because it’s not really about me now. I’m gone. It’s about the next person who calls and really needs something. You’re going to have to show up and be excellent. And that’s the challenge, and that internal challenge of policing every day. If you’re going to do it well, you have to challenge yourself to be excellent because you’re going to be at your best when somebody is at their worst, and worst is relative.”

He told officers not to “cry for me. You’ve got a job to do.”

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