Auburn Police Advisory Committee outlines changes

Auburn’s Police Advisory Committee (PAC) cannot make policy.

Instead, its 20 or so members, drawn from a broad cross-section of the community, meet with police brass once a month to hash out issues that have popped up, and to make suggestions.

But as it turns out, when Auburn’s police chief, his commanders and others are at the table and listening, even suggestions may go a long way.

On Aug. 11, Police Chief Mark Caillier joined PAC members Diana Johnson, Chris Knight and Josh Zumsteg at the Auburn City Council work session to talk about the community and police reaction to former officer Jeffrey Nelson’s conviction for the 2019 murder of Jesse Sarey — and bring city leaders up to date about the PAC’s activities.

The hard truth, Johnson said, is that the fatal shooting of Sarey by Nelson is one of the negatives that the PAC hears about the most, especially from communities of color.

“A lot are still talking specifically about how much of the department or city showed up to support him. And we’ve talked about this in our meetings, about how the quotes (the city uses) give them the impression, ‘We would have killed Jesse, too.’ That’s hard to hear, and it’s hard to talk about it,” Johnson said.

Specifically, Johnson continued, the community is unhappy with the city’s response because, while people understand that the PAC is putting many things into place to change things, and to prevent such a thing from happening again, that doesn’t satisfy them.

“People want to see … like, an acknowledgement of wrong. I know there are all sorts of legalities and concerns in place with that, and we did not have the answers, but that’s what the community wants to hear from the city: ‘OK, if an officer was convicted of murder, they did something wrong,’ and they’re not hearing that. Or even just saying, ‘If a different officer had shown up, would the call have gone differently?’ That’s a discussion we’ve had, and that’s been kind of an eye-opening thing for some of the command staff to think about,” Johnson said.

But the PAC is not focused exclusively about feelings, but about what can be done. Many people have asked about some sort of restorative justice process, possibly a memorial for Sarey, or about revisiting the policy of unpaid leave for an officer charged with murder during the collective-bargaining process, and about putting policies and systems in place to prevent another such situation.

As Johnson noted, since the police department formed the committee in the wake of the George Floyd killing and protests that rocked the city of Auburn and the rest of the nation in 2020, the PAC has quietly, but effectively, contributed to safety improvements most of us may not even be aware of.

“One of coolest things about the PAC is that came out of the protests when all of us thinking there needs to be unity… These are accomplishments of the partnership with the PAC and the police department,” said Johnson.

Here are a handful of the improvements:

• Police can now trespass people soliciting from highway on- and off-ramps.

• Safety helmets are now provided to prevent passengers from slamming heads in the vehicles so they are taken to a hospital instead of jail. It also gets officers back in service more rapidly.

• 911 complaints against police behavior are now posted.

• Some, but all at the moment, may now take their vehicles home.

• More effective communication between the community and police command staff.

• Green River College scholarships.

• Dramatic increase in community cooperation such as reporting crimes and submitting evidence.

• The addition of more harm-reduction tools such as the Pepper Ball and BolaWrap, a non-lethal, hand-held, laser-guided restraint device that quickly and safely shoots a 7.5-foot long Kevlar cord at a speed of 513 feet per second at a subject. Fired from an effective range 10-25 feet, the cord wraps around the subject’s legs or arms, effectively restraining them without causing significant pain or injury.

Auburn Police use the BolaWrap most often in situations where de-escalation is crucial, such as encounters with individuals in the throes of mental health crises, those under the influence, or those who are non-compliant but not assaultive, according to the department.

The goal is to create a distraction, allowing officers to safely approach and handcuff the individual, minimizing the risk of injury to the subject and the officers involved. All APD officers are trained in its use, but not all carry it. Officers using the BolaWrap undergo specialized training to ensure proper deployment and understand when and how to use it effectively, according to the department.