‘It’s a wake-up call’: KIRO hosts dissect the Supreme Court ruling reshaping police accountability in WA

The Washington State Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the family of Jacqueline Salyers, a 32-year-old member of the Puyallup Tribe killed by Tacoma police in 2016, can sue the city for keeping an officer on the force after it learned of domestic violence allegations against him. The decision in Earl v. Campbell reverses a 2025 Court of Appeals ruling and sends the case back to Pierce County Superior Court.

Officer Aaron Joseph’s wife reported in 2009 that he pointed his service pistol at her head, threatened to kill her, and threatened to kill a coworker. Joseph was not disciplined. Seven years later, Salyers’ family alleges Joseph struck her car window with his pistol, accidentally firing it and triggering another officer to shoot. The court has not found Tacoma liable, but ruled the family can argue the city was negligent for retaining Joseph as an employee.

KIRO fill-in hosts Angela Poe Russell and Jim Dever said the ruling raises questions about where personal conduct ends and professional accountability begins.

“There’s always a debate about where your personal conduct belongs in judging your ability to do your job,” Jim said on “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “It’s just that the stakes are a little higher when your job involves guns. We need to hold our police to a higher standard than maybe the guy serving you coffee at the corner store.”

Angela compared the standard to other professions where off-duty behavior is monitored.

“Let’s say you’re a pilot. They have certain things that you can’t do on your personal time because you have to fly a plane,” Angela said. “It seems to me that a police officer might fall in that category of your personal life kind of bleeding into this, in terms of we expect you to be able to have control over your emotions.”

Jim said the lack of formal charges made the situation harder.

“Had he been found guilty at the time of the alleged domestic violence, maybe he would have been forced into some sort of program,” Jim said. “The problem here is it fell into a little bit of a gray area. There were charges. They were credible, but they chose not to pursue them legally.”

KIRO producer Andrew Lanier pushed back, noting that domestic violence cases are notoriously difficult to prosecute.

“You have multiple witnesses to an incident, so the department knows that it has happened,” Andrew said. “And in domestic violence cases, often what happens is, ‘I don’t want to break up the family,’ so we have a non-cooperating witness.”

Andrew draws a line to the Jaahnavi Kandula case

Andrew said private employers routinely fire workers for conduct that never results in charges, and pointed to a case closer to home.

“Former SPD officer Kevin Dave, he’s the officer who struck Jaahnavi Kandula and killed her on the sidewalk,” Andrew said. “When he was with Tucson police, he caused two crashes in a month. He drove for seven months with expired registration on his personal car. He was fired from Tucson PD. He had his license suspended in Arizona for unpaid tickets. And he also ran a red light while he was down there. And so SPD picks him up, and what do you know? He has reckless driving behavior that causes the death of a citizen.”

Andrew said the ruling could set a new standard.

“If this is the new standard, Kevin Dave does not get hired with SPD in the first place,” Andrew said.

Angela agreed.

“Regardless of what the union policies might be, the police department is going to have to carefully consider the behavior through the lens of, if something were to happen, did you know this officer was unfit?” Angela said. “Did you have evidence the officer was unfit?”

Jim called the decision a wake-up call beyond Tacoma.

“No matter what happens with this specific case, it’s a wake-up call,” Jim said.

“And what do you do with all the officers who are currently on payroll who you know have had issues in the past?” Andrew asked. “That’s going to be a challenge.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.