President of Seattle police guild dies in crash

By Ray Rivera and Michael Ko
Seattle Times staff reporter

JIMI LOTT / THE SEATTLE TIMES Seattle Police Officer Ken Saucier

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A passenger, 46-year-old Wesley Lorenz of Lynwood, was treated for minor injuries at a nearby hospital and released.

The pair were returning from the annual National Rifle and Pistol Championships in Camp Perry, Ohio when the crash occurred at about 4 a.m., according to Idaho State Police investigating officer Ronald Sutton.

Sutton said the white 2000 Ford Ranger pickup the men were in drifted off the left shoulder of Interstate 90 and Saucier apparently overcorrected, rolling the vehicle.

Both men were wearing seatbelts and there was no evidence that either had been drinking, Sutton said.

Saucier died at the scene. Lorenz was taken to Kootenai Medical Center in Coeur d'Alene with minor injuries.

Lorenz told investigators the pair had been driving extensively to get home from the competition. Sutton said Saucier may have fallen asleep at the wheel, but the crash was still under investigation.

Saucier, a Seattle police officer since 1986, was known for steadfastly defending rank-and-file patrolmen.

Seattle Police Sgt. Deb Nicholson, a guild board member who began working with Saucier almost 19 years ago, said he "stood up for the rights of officers, he did whatever he had to do. 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."

One of his biggest issues was pushing for more officer training.

He was elected guild president in 2002, becoming the first African American to lead the 1,200-member union.

His willingness to speak out and his shoot-from-the-hip style made him popular with line officers and propelled his decisive victory in guild elections. He was serving his second term when he died.

He took over the guild in the midst of crisis, inheriting a pending vote of no-confidence in Chief Gil Kerlikowske initiated under the previous president, Mike Edwards. The vote was prompted by the public discipline of a patrolman and simmering ire over the 2001 Mardi Gras riots, in which Kerlikowske ordered officers to stand back while the melee escalated, leaving one person dead and several injured.

About 88 percent of guild members cast votes against the chief, spelling what many thought would be the beginning of the end of his tenure. But the chief survived and continued to draw support from city leadership.

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

From David John Walker, who was shot by police in Queen Anne in April 2000, to the sword-wielding Shawn Maxwell, killed by officers in the University District in 2002, Saucier adamantly defended police against charges of racism.

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

Some black leaders interpreted that as a threat: If you keep calling us racist, we'll stop policing your neighborhoods.

Saucier stoked controversy again last year when he publicly mocked the head of the Seattle Fire Fighters Union over a long-running dispute over which department should be in charge of dive rescues on the waterfront.

Throughout, Saucier shrugged off criticism and maintained support of the union.

Before he became guild president, Saucier was a patrol officer, a member of the SWAT team and a shooting range instructor.

Saucier took pains to keep his private life separate from his outspoken public persona. Married with three children, he would politely request of interviewers to not name his family members.

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.

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

"My hero," he called her.

He grew up in Pearl Harbor as a Navy brat. He joined the Army out of high school, and went from the Army Reserve to the Seattle Police Department.

Growing up in the cultural melting pot of military bases, where blacks and other minorities held positions of authority, helped shape Saucier's views on race. In letters, essays and interviews, he often took to task those who claimed inherent racism within law-enforcement agencies.

"It's absolutely true that police at one time were the instrument on institutional racism, 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?"

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