Ken Saucier, 1963 - 2004: Seattle police guild leader dies in crash

Ken Saucier, the candid, controversial president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, whose relentless work on officer safety and training issues made him popular with the rank and file, died yesterday morning in a single-car accident in northern Idaho. He was 40.

Mr. Saucier's "love of police officers probably overshadowed everything he did," said Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, who broke the news to Mr. Saucier's family yesterday. "He taught me more than I ever thought I wanted to know about officer safety training, and training out at the range."

Seattle Police Sgt. Deb Nicholson, a guild board member, said, "It wasn't always the prettiest, how he did it, or as eloquent as it could be. Maybe people took offense to it, but he stood up for officers."

Idaho State Police investigators said Mr. Saucier was driving home with a friend, 46-year-old Wesley Lorenz of Lynnwood, after participating in the annual National Rifle and Pistol Championships at Camp Perry, Ohio.

Mr. Saucier's accuracy as a nationally-ranked pistol marksman was near legendary. It had been said that, nine times out of 10, he could hit a quarter from 50 feet away.

The accident occurred about 3:50 a.m. on Interstate 90 near the Idaho-Washington border. Idaho State Police officer Ronald Sutton said the pickup Mr. Saucier was driving drifted off the left shoulder.

Mr. Saucier apparently overcorrected, rolling the vehicle. He died at the scene. Lorenz, who works for Honeywell, was treated for minor injuries at a nearby hospital and released.

Investigators believe Mr. Saucier may have fallen asleep at the wheel, but the crash was still under investigation last night. Both men were wearing seat belts, and there was no evidence that either had been drinking, Sutton said.

Mr. Saucier, a Seattle police officer since June 1986, was elected guild president in 2002, becoming the first African American to lead the 1,150-member union. In December, he won a second two-year term.

He took over the guild in the midst of crisis, inheriting a pending vote of no confidence in Kerlikowske initiated under the previous president, Mike Edwards.

The vote was prompted by the public disciplining of a patrolman over a jaywalking incident and simmering ire over the 2001 Mardi Gras riots, in which officers were ordered to stand back while the melee escalated. One person died and several others were injured.

Although 88 percent of guild members cast votes against the chief, Kerlikowske survived.

Sgt. Kevin Haistings, vice president of the police guild, said Mr. Saucier was affected by the aftermath of the World Trade Organization riots in Seattle in 1999.

Mr. Saucier felt frustrated at the criticism of officers, and believed the police brass was just letting it happen, Haistings recalled.

After writing articles for the guild newsletter and speaking out, he decided it was time to "put up or shut up" and joined the guild's board, Haistings said. About a year later, Mr. Saucier was president.

In that role, Mr. Saucier pushed for more practical training opportunities. He successfully fought attempts to cut back four days of required "street skills" training for all officers, and he worked on developing less-lethal technologies such as Taser stun guns and beanbag guns.

For the past year and a half, Mike Schoeppach, Seattle's labor-relations director, sat across the bargaining table from Mr. Saucier several times a month during hours-long negotiating sessions. The police guild has been working without a contract since the end of 2002.

"Ken was forthright in his perspective," Schoeppach said. "He certainly was somebody who made his best efforts to represent the interests of the people he was charged to represent."

Detective James Manning remembered Mr. Saucier as a good communicator who had a talent for encouraging young recruits as the shooting-range instructor.

Before becoming president of the guild, Mr. Saucier had also patrolled and worked as a plainclothes officer and a member of the SWAT team.

Mr. Saucier was a large man with rectangular wire-rimmed glasses, a quiet, rambling voice and reserved mannerisms. He was considered an excellent writer with a sharp wit, and he used that skill to sting foes.

In last December's guild newsletter, during the long-running dispute over whether firefighters or police should be in charge of waterfront dive rescues, Mr. Saucier compared the Seattle firefighters union president to the offspring of the donkey character from the movie "Shrek" and "the Energizer bunny's crack-addicted little sister."

Mr. Saucier often found himself at odds with the African-American community, particularly after high-profile police shootings involving black suspects.

In most cases, he adamantly defended police against charges of racism.

At one point, Mr. Saucier even publicly broached the idea of de-policing — passive law enforcement — as a response to chronic charges of police racism.

Mr. Saucier's views on race were shaped partly during his youth as a Navy brat in Pearl Harbor, where he watched blacks and other minorities hold positions of authority on the military base.

"It's absolutely true that police at one time were the instrument of institutional racism," Mr. Saucier said in a 2002 interview. "But how many times does someone have to say they're sorry? How many years have to pass before the sons are forgiven for their families' sins — 20 years, 50 years, 100 years? Forever?"

W. Edward Reed, whose criminal-justice class at the University of Washington featured Mr. Saucier as a guest speaker two years ago, said, "Ken had a colorblind way of looking at the world."

A 2002 profile of him in The Seattle Times described the "private Kenny" as "a motorcycle buff, a computer geek, an introverted bookworm" and a homebody who adored his mother.

In the ceremonies to become a police officer and again to take over the guild, Mr. Saucier asked his mother to swear him in.

"My hero," he called her.

Mr. Saucier is survived by his wife of almost 18 years, Suzanne, and their three daughters, Rebecca, Regina and Renee. Plans for services have not been finalized.

Seattle Times staff reporter Florangela Davila contributed to this report.

Michael Ko: 206-515-5653 or mko@seattletimes.com;

Ray Rivera: 206-464-2926 or rrivera@seattletimes.com