The King County Council is nearing a final decision on who will be the next leader of the agency that oversees the King County Sheriff’s Office.
There are two finalists for the director of the Office of Law Enforcement Oversight, known as OLEO. Both candidates shared their vision for the office during a council meeting last Tuesday.
Eddie Aubrey is a former California police officer and previous King County prosecuting attorney and judge. He leads the agency overseeing the Richmond Police Department.
"The vision I have is that, number one, is building that trust — but the sheriff's department, OLEO and the community has a shared vision on what policing looks like," Aubrey said.
The other candidate, Tamer Abouzeid, previously worked at Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability. He’s currently a civil rights attorney.
"I would love to see OLEO be like a mini-think tank of sorts. But also work especially with academic centers, with universities that do a lot of research into this type of stuff. We really need to not be afraid of data," Abouzeid said.
Councilmembers were expected to name a new director at a committee meeting last Tuesday, but instead moved the decision to the full council. The council could make a final decision at a meeting Tuesday.
OLEO is currently led by an interim director, Adrienne Wat. The county council voted last September to not renew the contract of former OLEO director Deborah Jacobs after an independent investigation found she had engaged in discriminatory and inappropriate conduct with staff.
