Olympia’s Police Chief search postponed until late 2021
After a temporary pause, Olympia is now calling off its search for a new police chief until the end of 2021.
The city announced the full stop late Monday, citing a desire to wait for the recommendations from two committees currently assigned to overhaul Olympia’s policing and criminal justice systems, as well as propose racial justice reforms.
“While I’m disappointed to have to postpone the search, waiting until the Reimagining Public Safety process is complete makes the most sense in terms of timing, and it will allow more community voices and perspectives from this process to be considered before we relaunch the search,” City Manager Jay Burney wrote in prepared statement.
The search was previously put on pause following the discovery of a news story about one of the four finalists, Derrick Turner, grabbing a man by the throat while he was an officer in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Both Burney and the consulting firm hired by the city to run the hiring process said they were not aware of the story prior to naming Turner a finalist.
City Council members Renata Rollins and Lisa Parshley had previously called for the process to be halted until the two committees — the Social Justice and Equity Commission and the Ad-Hoc Committee on Public Safety — have finished their work and presented findings to city council, which is currently slated for August.
The Social Justice and Equity Commission will hold a series of focus groups throughout April and May that will focus on specific marginalized populations — including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), LGBTQ, immigrants, people with disabilities, and those unstably housed — according to an update on Tuesday from Olivia Salazar de Breaux, the city’s Equity and Inclusion Coordinator. Those sessions will be capped at 40 people each, but a city-wide session on May 22 will be open to all.
The fall will be a busy time for decisions about policing. That’s when the city expects to begin negotiating a new contract with the Olympia Police Guild, the union that represents 60 of the department’s officers. The current union contract was extended for one year in January and expires at the end of 2021.
When the police chief search does re-launch, the city will use a different consulting firm, the city’s announcement said.
Karras Consulting, the firm originally tasked with fielding candidates, admitted they were not aware of news stories about Turner’s throat-grabbing incident, which occurred in 2017, until a journalist from the Olympia Tribune contacted the city the day the finalists were named.
Karras was paid $14,000 of its $40,000 contract, and city spokesperson Kellie Purce Braseth said the city will not pay the rest, the Tribune reported.
Interim Police Chief Aaron Jelcick, who is also one of the finalists for the post, will remain in charge of the Olympia Police Department until a new chief is picked. The two other remaining candidates — Sgt. Amy King, who is currently the acting Community Policing Lieutenant, as well as Sean Case, a captain at the Anchorage Police Department in Alaska — also will remain in contention, the city said.
The Olympian filed a public records request with Anchorage Police Department seeking Case’s disciplinary records on March 29, but that request was denied on the basis that personnel records are exempt from Alaska’s public records disclosure laws.
King received two written warnings in 2016, including one for an incident where she pulled her gun out at a department meeting and pointed it at the ceiling, The Olympian previously reported.
The Olympian is awaiting additional personnel records for both Jelcick and King.
This story was originally published April 14, 2021 at 1:26 PM.
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