Latest news with #OfficeofIndependentInvestigations
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
New WA agency investigating police deadly force incidents sees budget cuts
This screenshot from Kitsap County Sheriff's Office body camera footage shows the moments before law enforcement killed Justin Moegling near Poulsbo last month. (Kitsap County Sheriff's Office) The night of May 7 was a challenge for Washington's nascent agency tasked with investigating when police kill people. The new state Office of Independent Investigations started looking into such cases in December. But only in a swath of western Washington, stretching from the northwestern edge of the Olympic Peninsula to Clark and Skamania counties on the border with Oregon. Lawmakers established the office as an alternative to cops investigating when other cops use deadly force. Around 9 p.m. May 7 near Poulsbo, officers from the local police department and Kitsap County sheriff's deputies tried to subdue a man who had a knife after a traffic stop, the Office of Independent Investigations later reported. Unable to get Justin Moegling, 41, into custody, a Poulsbo officer and Kitsap County deputy reportedly shot him in the head. The state agency sent 15 investigators to the scene. Minutes before midnight in Ridgefield, a Clark County deputy stabbed Marc Fogle, 54, who was held on suspicion of driving under the influence, after he allegedly tried to steal the deputy's gun, investigators say. Fogle died from his injuries. The agency had to reroute a few investigators from Poulsbo to Ridgefield, more than 150 miles away. Others had to come from as far as Spokane to respond. These are two of the four cases the investigative office has responded to in the past seven months. Elsewhere in Washington, teams made up of local detectives from multiple police departments are the ones investigating after officers kill someone. Creation of the state office was driven by the increased push for police accountability in cases where officers use deadly force, especially against Black people, after the deaths of George Floyd in Minnesota and Manuel Ellis in Tacoma. Now, supporters of the agency say budget cuts passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Bob Ferguson last month could threaten the fledgling office's momentum. It took years to get off the ground before December's launch, having to hire new staff, develop policies and conduct training from scratch. Last month, investigators issued their first report, on a fatal police shooting in Vancouver that came just a few days after the office opened. The office's director, Roger Rogoff, still expects to expand the office's reach to another of its half-dozen regions this year. Where exactly that'll be remains to be seen. The more dense King and Pierce counties are each considered their own 'region.' Still, community advocates worry about the cuts. Nickeia Hunter, whose brother was killed by police, said it 'sends the wrong message' to scale back funding for an agency created in light of 'decades of injustice and erasure.' 'While I'm glad to hear Director Rogoff still intends to expand into another region, the reality is that underfunding accountability infrastructure directly undermines trust — especially in communities that have been historically harmed by law enforcement,' Hunter said in an email. Coming into 2025, the Office of Independent Investigations asked the governor and Legislature for more than $53 million in the next two-year budget. This would've been a hike of 40% from its current state funding, mostly focused on increasing staffing. A lack of investigators, especially east of the Cascades, is the biggest issue standing in the agency's way of expanding more quickly. 'It is wholly dependent on us having sufficient resources available,' Rogoff said, noting legislators had previously underestimated how many investigators the office would need. The money would've paid for hiring an additional 30 investigators over the next two years. Instead, lawmakers slashed the office's budget by more than 20%, to a biennial total under $30 million, in the face of a multibillion-dollar budget shortfall that forced a range of cuts. 'I worry about our special needs kids in our schools, I worry about food insecurity, I worry about our immigrant community,' said Sen. Manka Dhingra, a Redmond Democrat and chair of the Senate Law and Justice Committee. 'These are the cuts that were felt all across state government.' Part of the cut to the Office of Independent Investigations' budget was driven by several million dollars the agency hadn't spent that lawmakers had previously approved, said Dhingra, who worked with Rogoff at the King County prosecutor's office. Rogoff is thankful the Legislature didn't chop even more funding. And he's proud of his team's work so far. 'We've hired 63 people in two and a half years, and the level of efficiency and talent and work done in these investigations is pretty phenomenal,' said Rogoff, a former King County judge and prosecutor. Hires include investigators, liaisons for the families of victims, and others. Rogoff wishes the agency was already working statewide. But he promised not to put staff in a position where they're investigating cases without the proper training and resources. 'I will continue to abide by that promise,' he said. 'I think that doing these investigations badly is the worst thing that could happen to this agency.' He's confident lawmakers will eventually give his office the money needed for the additional hiring. In the Vancouver shooting, the Clark County prosecutor is currently reviewing the evidence behind the state office's 99-page report before deciding whether to charge the officer involved. Anna Klein, the chief criminal deputy prosecutor in Clark County, said her office hopes to reach a conclusion in the 'near future.' For years, progressive Democrats have wanted to establish an independent prosecutor to make those choices, given how closely county prosecutors work with local law enforcement. But they've repeatedly failed in that goal, a top priority for police accountability advocates like Hunter. Many of the agency's investigators come from law enforcement backgrounds. If candidates have had a policing job within two years, they have to get approval from the office's advisory board. Beyond the inquiries into new cases, those investigators are also tasked with looking at old instances where police used deadly force and new evidence has been discovered. Members of the public can submit review requests online. The agency has taken up nine such cases, from places ranging from Poulsbo to Yakima to Snohomish County. None have been completed. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democrats rework plan for WA prosecutor on police use of deadly force
State Sen. Manka Dhingra speaks as the Washington state Senate convenes for floor session on Feb. 28, 2023. (Washington State Legislative Support Services) Washington Democrats are trying again to give the state additional power to prosecute cases when police use deadly force. But the bill looks a bit different this time around compared to past years. The previous version made the Office of Independent Prosecutions a division in the attorney general's office. But then-Attorney General Bob Ferguson argued that prosecuting these cases could be a conflict of interest for the attorney general's office. The agency serves as legal counsel for state law enforcement, including the Washington State Patrol. Former Gov. Jay Inslee raised similar concerns about conflict of interest if the office was housed under the governor. 'We were without options,' said Rep. Monica Stonier, D-Vancouver, the prime sponsor of past legislation to create the office. But now with a new administration in town, lawmakers plan to relaunch their push for the independent prosecutor, this time in the governor's office. Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, filed a bill Tuesday to add a statewide prosecutor to an existing law enforcement oversight agency. Proponents say it makes sense to place the prosecutor under the governor's jurisdiction, as part of the Office of Independent Investigations lawmakers created in 2021. The agency would be renamed the Office of Independent Investigations and Prosecutions. Ferguson, now governor, also prefers placing the prosecutor in his office. Still, supporters of the measure should expect similar pushback as in past years from county prosecutors who say a statewide counterpart usurps their authority. The new attorney general, Nick Brown, said in an interview earlier this month he thought his office should oversee the independent prosecutor. 'There's been conversations about putting it in the governor's office or some other independent entity,' Brown said the day he was sworn in. 'At least from my vantage point on the outside, over the last couple years, it always made the most sense for me to house that work here.' An attorney general's office spokesperson said this week staff were reviewing the latest proposal. The past two years, Democrats in the state House have moved a bill forward to create the independent prosecutor's office with no Republican support. But both times the legislation didn't make it to the Senate floor. Dhingra is optimistic about its chances, but justifying the cost in a difficult budget year could be tough. 'Anything with a fiscal note is in trouble this year,' Dhingra said. Last year's legislation was expected to cost $9.5 million in the 2025-2027 biennium, and $12.7 million in the next biennium. Previous versions cost much more. Locating the prosecutor within the Office of Independent Investigations could lead to even more savings. Adding the independent prosecutor is a priority for police accountability advocates. They also want to authorize the attorney general to investigate local police for violating state law. A committee hearing on that legislation, Senate Bill 5066, is set for Thursday. The Washington Coalition for Police Accountability just wants to see the office up and running. It 'doesn't really matter where it's located,' said the group's policy expert, Leslie Cushman. Cushman said the coalition believes the independent prosecutor will 'improve accountability, and it'll give some confidence to communities.' Another big holdup in recent years has been local prosecutors who argued the independent statewide office would take away their authority to investigate these cases. Republicans in the past have agreed. Law enforcement groups have also been opposed. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX But supporters say local prosecutors work too closely with law enforcement, giving their decisions in cases of deadly force an air of bias. 'This isn't going to guarantee anybody is going to be prosecuted,' Cushman said. 'It's just guaranteeing greater credibility of the process and maybe some greater transparency.' The statewide prosecutor could see a rough average of 30 cases annually, according to projections last year. The prosecutor would handle cases from the independent investigations office. The agency is just starting to conduct its own inquiries on new cases, launching in December to look into deaths in southwest Washington and the Olympic Peninsula before expanding across the state. So far, the investigations office has initiated probes in two cases, in Centralia and Vancouver. The agency is required to finish its inquiries within 120 days. Currently, those investigations would go to the county prosecutor. But if lawmakers pass Senate Bill 5584, the evidence would be forwarded to the independent prosecutor, who would review the case concurrently with the local prosecutor. If both file charges, it would be a judge's job to decide whose prosecution 'will best promote the interests of justice.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE The idea of the state bringing charges against police officers who use deadly force isn't entirely new. In late 2023, a jury found three officers not guilty of criminal charges in the killing of Manuel Ellis in Tacoma in a case handled by the attorney general. In that case, the Washington State Patrol investigated Ellis' death and turned its findings over to the attorney general.
