#JaahanaviKandula #JusticeForJaahnavi
Update which does not change the thrust of RantWoman's comments below because RantWoman sees more issues than one phone conversation
Seattle Times update: officer involved in laughing about Jaahnavi Kandula taken off the street.
"This call may be recorded for quality purposes."
How many of us hear that notification several times a week? How many of us think "oh thank GOD there should be someone helping the call center staff person figure out how to avoid all the mistakes they made for the future?
How many of us think if we hear this for medical, banking and other calls, that there is any reason this message should not also apply to police.
How many of us realize that if our phones can take dictation and our smart speakers can play our favorite music or podcast, technology almost certainly exists to speed analysis of high volumes of audio to look for indications of problems?
RantWoman has been thinking of all this ever since the story of Seattle's contract with a firm called Trulio broke after information about Officer Auderer's horrific comments made it up the SPD chain of command, Officer Solan, the President of the Seattle Police Officer's Guild immediately took action to ask Chief Diaz to end the contract with Trulio, the software company analyzing body cam recordings.
Honestly, RantWoman's first reaction to almost any form of AI is two questions: what data was the system trained on and are people going to ask the right questions of it? RantWoman is also in "trust but verify mode" about all software marketing pitches. Stay tuned for further comments.
RantWoman is trying to give Officer Auderer the EXTREME benefit of the doubt about his claim that he and Officer Solan were discussing the way some lawyers address problems. HOWEVER, RantWoman imagines a flock of lawyers and the phrase "that wasn't in the SPOG contract."
RantWoman's comment: but should it be? Should the city, SPD management, Seattle taxpayers and even SPOG think seriously about just acknowledging that this kind of software could be valuable? And yeah, ACLU, sure the software many identify issues involving civilians. So make procedures to deal with a whole bunch of issues that might arise.
And by the way, if AI is going to be used, there is more to monitor. If any aspect of machine learning is occurring, what checks are there that learning is happening about important issues, not just entrenching prejudices?
What actually leads to fewer officer screwups and more confidence that situations will be handled professionally?
See, RantWoman is troubled by a WHOLE bunch of threads in the Jaahnavi Kandula story besides the horrible laughter now heard round and round the world.
From the top even though RantWoman thinks there may be coverage she has not dug up about some of the points:
--Start with Officer Dave and his long record of disciplinary and driving issues.
--Emergency response to a POSSIBLE OD? What is normal procedure?
--Lights and sirens? Lights we are unclear about. Siren was chirping. RantWoman has written elsewhere of her views and experiences about that.
--Travel speed 62 mph but did he SPEED UP to the 70+ mph mentioned in some reports? What's up with that?
RantWoman has not gone looking for full footage from Officer Dave the night of the crash. The small comment RantWoman heard seemed extremely on point. RantWoman would definitely investigate in more depth if she were tasked with more in-depth investigation.
So now we get to Officer Auderer.
Things that seem problematic just going in
--long record of complaints to OPA about him
--Both vice president of SPOG AND a drug recognition officer. RantWoman is glad to read that a member of the city council echoes RantWoman's concern about conflict of interest issues.
--has to drive all the way from Olympia very late at night to do his drug recognition duties. RantWoman is no expert about how quickly some forms of impairment disappear but does wonder whether delay may sometimes affect readings.
--How many drug recognition officers does SPD have? Are they on call all the time or are there enough of them that each can arrange to be in Seattle for say 24 hours in terms of on-call duty?
As for the other content of the video besides the horrific laughter.
--understating Officer Dave's travel speed
--trying to spin a narrative not based on facts about how far Jaahanavie travelled after she was hit and what exactly happened. Maybe a better idea would be NOT to speculate but to leave questions to TCIS, the unit that investigates traffic accidents.
--Misrepresenting the lights and siren issue
RantWoman would absolutely prefer not to have the horrific laughter in the first place. However, the video illustrates a number of points for investigation as well as a number of ways RantWoman imagines that practices and training could evolve to lead to better outcomes for both the city and the police.
Various media links collected here just for reference.
CM Kshama Sawant September 15 press release about Auderer video
Seattle Times Naomi Ishisaka The laughter heard around the world
Includes links to multiple other Seattle Times stories.
Open Vallejo: Seattle police ended contract with...
Speaking of recordings, additional links about Officer Burton Hill (and his wife, the president of their Homeowners Association) recorded harassing with sexist and racist language
The Stranger: Officer Burton Hill hurls offensive epithets at a neighbor
--Lots of links about OPA complaints against Officer Hill.
--Officer Hill and Neighbor have civil protection orders against each other. Wait, how do ordinary civil protection orders address the subject of firearms?
--As an aside, more than one blind person has trouble with HOA's unresponsive to concerns. Note to self: probably time to further research issues and options
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