OPA case 2020OPA-0070 posted today. The system worked today, apparently resulting in a termination. But the case summary reveals multiple issues with SPD that Myerberg does not address.

Officer Friendly hit a parked car. Got out, inspected the car, inspected his car, then drove off. Vehicle owner witnessed part of this from their window & called 911. Friendly was the responding officer!

Friendly denied to the owners that he'd hit their car. Discouraged them from filing a report. Encouraged them to pay out of pocket because of insurance deductibles.

Sergeant called to the scene. Friendly denied it all to the sergeant.

Friendly also denied to another officer conducting a criminal investigation, and to the OPA.

OPA decides the officer committed hit & run, was unprofessional, and lied. Terminated. Though perhaps the officer will appeal. God knows SPOG will go to bat for him.

Here's the bad parts. First, a "minor" one. A witness officer refused to talk to OPA and OPA could not force them to because the witness officer had left SPD employ.

We really should be able to penalize such behavior by docking LEFSA time worked credit or something similar.

The MAJOR bad part is that the criminal investigation was conducted by SPD itself. SPD drafted a homicide detective to do that. That officer conferred with suspect Officer Friendly before conducting the investigation.

Homicide officer decided ahead of time that Friendly was not guilty, and then used the investigation to find reasons to discount the vehicle owner's statements.

OPA viewed the recording of the investigatory interview homicide detective conducted with Officer Friendly. Full of questions like "you didn't hit that car did you?"

OPA reveals all this merely to say "we're not bound by that officer's conclusions." But apparently there's no OPA investigation for violating policies on complete, impartial investigations. Not even a "supervisory action" or "training referral".

For 6+ months, I've been repeating that SPD should not investigate itself in officer-involved shootings. SPD has gotten itself out of following I-940 and Terry Caver won't get justice partially because of that.

Here we have an example of two officers "holding the line" (to use a Mike Solan promulgated phrase) to protect a fellow officer over something minor. What do you think they'll do when the stakes are higher for a buddy?

When Mike Solan talks about "holding the line" he's talking about protecting criminals and sometimes murderers wearing a uniform and badge from any consequences.

Feel free to read all the details yourself: https://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/OPA/ClosedCaseSummaries/2020OPA-0070ccs082320.pdf