Olympia City Hall

City officials move to hire police auditor

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OLYMPIA –– The Olympia City Council voted to move ahead in hiring a police auditor Tuesday night to eliminate events around police brutality.

The hired police auditor will be in charge of reviewing the police department’s standards to determine whether the investigations meet the standard of being complete, thorough, objective, and fair. The number of complaint cases would also be reviewed annually and consist of all complaints about police employees who are alleged to use excessive or unnecessary force, commit civil rights violations, show bias and any other cases described in the contract. 

City council members also voted Tuesday night to restore a budget of $30,000 and discussed an estimated timeline to hire the police auditor with Debbie Sullivan, assistant city manager. City officials discussed multiple approaches to fast track the procedure to restore the program at the earliest. 

“The motion that is recommended is to approve hiring an auditor under the existing ordinance with an understanding that considerable updates will be done throughout the year,” said City Council Member Clark Gilman. 

As the city enters the agreement on behalf of the police department, “the only thing to keep in mind is that additional requests will increase the cost of the contract” said Mark Barber, City Attorney.

City officials are now seeking a police auditor with a history of integrity, a law degree or another advanced degree, has knowledge and experience with contemporary investigative techniques and labor law as applied to public safety employees, and knows basic social science statistical analysis and techniques.

Olympia City Hall, Olympia City Council, police auditor, Olympia Police Department, police, Mark Barber, Clark Gilman

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