Most people are aware that some of us retired SPD cops have been following Condon’s hire of Frank Straub from day one. We could not understand how he could have been hired with all the well documented dirt going on in Indianapolis…but he was… so we tried as hard as we could to get the word out but were blown off at every turn. One of our concerns, aside from all the other concerns, was the way Straub handled contracts. Many were very questionable and resulted in investigations, they also cost the City of Indianapolis millions and they are still trying to recover from them. The news report below which was published on December 14^th was written by Investigative Reporter Russ McQuaid of FOX59 in Indy who did a heck of a job digging into Straub’s activities in Indianapolis. Most of his work as well as the work of other reporters in Indianapolis including Sandra Chapman of WTHR 13 in Indianapolis were supplied to the Spokesman Review. Both were contacted by one of the retired cops and they had considerable info on Straub that they published well prior to Condon hiring Straub. An interesting note about Sandra Chapman is that she did a really good story on the high profile Diploma Mill case that originated here in Spokane which I worked on. It was recommended to the Spokesman Review in 2013 that they contact their counterparts in Indianapolis and get the scoop on Straub…they never did.

 

The only media outlet in Spokane to contact McQuaid was the Inlander and they quoted him in this story. He could have told them much more about Straub including his stories about Straub’s truthfulness, as well as other things well documented prior to Straub’s hiring in Spokane.

 

http://www.inlander.com/spokane/fall-out-boys/Content?oid=2575005

 

 

So why should we be worried? Well for those that don’t know the City of Spokane and Spokane County are in the process of spending millions of our dollars on a new Computer Aided Dispatch and Records Management System and Frank Straub was involved in the process, which I might add looks like it is having some problems.

_________________________________

For more than a dozen years, the Tiburon system provided computer aided dispatch for police, fire and EMS runs in the City of Indianapolis and its 800,000 residents. That system had been updated over the course of time but was in need of an overhaul. Tiburon authorities told FOX59 that they had been assured by then-Public Safety Director Dr. Frank Straub that their company would be chosen to provide Indianapolis with a new system at a cost of approximately $3 million which maintain continuity of operations, maintenance and records.

Straub resigned at the end of April, 2012, chased out of office over unfounded claims of widespread police corruption and a deteriorating relationship with police, the public and the staff of Mayor Greg Ballard.

Ballard allowed Straub to stay on for 90 days that summer to search for a new job and it was during that window Tiburon officials claim they were informed their bid would not accepted and that the Department of Public Safety, and the Public Safety Board, operating on behalf of the mayor’s office, would enter into a contract with a new provider.

____________________________________

 

 

http://fox59.com/2015/12/14/indianapolis-ends-doomed-13-million-deal-on-public-safety-communications/

 

 

WHO ME WORRY…WHAT’ S THERE TO WORRY ABOUT????

 

 

TEASER

 

I’ll be doing a story shortly on the new Chief Selection Panel so stay tuned.