Public Safety Chair: “Blindsided” by City Manager’s Selection of Police Oversight Report Consultant

Reaction to the hiring of Seattle’s former top police oversight official Kathryn Olson to create a report on oversight models for the City of Pasadena has ranged from confidence, to feeling “slightly blindsided,” to having “reservations” — and that’s just from Councilmember John Kennedy.

Kennedy is chair of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee and the idea of producing an analysis of the various forms of police oversight in the United States as a way for Pasadena to consider what could work here was his brainchild.

Olson is a former president of The National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE) and she headed the Seattle Police Department’s Office of Professional Accountability (OPA) from 2007 to 2012.

Kennedy initially reacted to Olson’s hiring by saying that, from what he had learned, “she appears to be eminently qualified for her work for the city council and for the city. I know she is widely respected.”

That unqualified support seemed to change this week after a reporter called Kennedy with questions about Olson’s past.

“Additional information that has been provided to me by a non-city staff member,” Kennedy said Tuesday, “raises serious questions about her independence, and it would also appear that there may be some integrity issues, and that the Department of Justice made a number of findings that impacted her tenure in one of her previous business relationships. I feel slightly blindsided that this information was not readily presented to me by staff.”

What Kennedy apparently did not know about Olson’s tenure in Seattle was that during her time there, a federal probe of Seattle police by the U.S. Department of Justice found the Seattle department engaged in a “pattern or practice of using unnecessary or excessive force.” That federal conclusion resulted in a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to reform the Seattle Police Department.

A 2012 article in Seattle newsmagazine “The Stranger” said under Olson’s leadership police officers had been either not punished or lightly punished for abuse of citizens during the period investigated by the federal government.

“Taken together, these cases and criticisms paint a portrait of what the OPA has become under Olson’s leadership. When officers are punished (rarely), the penalties are laughably light. Often, cops are let off the hook completely (sometimes with good cause, but in some cases despite apparently galling behavior),” the story by Dominic Holden alleged.

“Technically,” the article added, “Olson is not breaking the rules. A Byzantine hierarchy of SPD policy, union police contracts, state labor law, and criminal codes, combined with a discipline process that involves commanders and the chief—it all ends up setting a very high bar for punishing a cop. But what Olson has failed to do, according to interviews with people at City Hall and those who have worked with the OPA in the past, is become a public leader for police accountability.”

Olson resigned in 2012 before becoming eligible for a third term. According to a report in the Seattle Times, Olson would not have been recommended by the City Council for re-hiring by the City of Seattle for that third term.

Olson and her associate, Barbara Attard, were hired by the city of Pasadena in December, 2015 from a field of three candidates who responded to a city Request For Proposal (RFP) to analyze various forms of police oversight so the City can determine which model best suits Pasadena.

Kennedy reportedly played no role in Olson’s selection. Proposals of less than $75,000 do not require City Council discussion or approval and are awarded by the City Manager.

“I can’t speak to any concern Mr. Kennedy might have, but the firm and the principals are highly qualified for the assignment and were properly vetted after responding to an RFP,” City Manager Michael Beck said earlier this week.

Olson begins her work in Pasadena this month, and should produce the completed report on possible models for a City police oversight committee at the end of March.