Auderer, responding to a comment from the other person on the line, who is inaudible in the footage, replied, “No, it’s a regular person.”
Auderer appeared to quickly turn off his body camera, which captured the exchange, immediately after making the comments. The Seattle Police Department released footage of the Jan. 24 conversation Monday, prompting outrage from police watchdog groups in the city.Auderer, the vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, was on a phone call with Mike Solan, the union’s president, the Seattle Times.
The department declined to comment further. The Office of Police Accountability confirmed to The Washington Post that it received a complaint from a Seattle Police Department employee and began investigating Auderer’s comments Aug. 2.Auderer, Solan and the Seattle Police Officers Guild did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday evening.
“I was imitating what a lawyer tasked with negotiating the case would be saying and being sarcastic to express that they shouldn’t be coming up with crazy arguments to minimize the payment,” Auderer wrote in the complaint, according to KTTH.