Big meeting of the Public Safety Committee today regarding the Intermodal Precinct move and the Arleth Furniture Fiasco. Hell, as a citizen you can’t talk or ask any questions at those meetings, as a matter of fact the last time someone tried it was Tim Connor regarding his complaint about Frank Straub and the way it was handled by Teresa Sanders. Jon Snyder nastily shut him down, so I decided not to go to the meeting because I’m not as nice of a guy as Tim Connor is, and would likely be asked to leave if not outright arrested. 🙂

 

Instead I sent an email to Council President Stuckart suggesting some pointed questions that need to be ask. Here is what I sent.

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Council President Stuckart,

As citizens are not allowed to participate by asking questions or speak during PSC Meetings I as a citizen will have to rely on members of the PSC to ask pointed questions and demand answers. I would like to offer some information that might help that process along.   I feel each member of the PSC should review this document I obtained via PRR which documents SOME of the plans for staffing “SPD Precincts”. IMO the questions become obvious once the document is reviewed.

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/9627cbf2-458a-4662-bed8-ef1b200284d1

As I have expressed before the “Precinct Model” which Frank Straub and Mayor Condon have tried to sell the citizens and the Council is extremely flawed, not cost effective, and does nothing to actually bring the crime rate down. The model SPD is trying to sell is a nonsensical take off on a successful model utilized by SPD in the past and was widely studied by other law enforcement agencies.   Here are some of the things that should be a big concern to the PSC and need to be addressed.   1. Is decentralization of the SPD one of the causes for all of the issues involving SPD Officers since 2012?        SPD now has officers assigned all over the City of Spokane in various locations and buildings, The PSB, City Hall, The Detectives Building on Gardner, The Monroe Court Building, The YWCA, The Hillyard Precinct, The South Precinct, The Federal Bldg., and who knows where else. I don’t know what answer you would get to question #1 from the presenters., but the truth is and is well documented that decentralization causes extreme supervision difficulties, there is NO disputing that.   2. Why is SPD in the process of spending a considerable amount of time and money on decentralization when there has NOT been a staffing and efficiency analysis done as the COPS/DOJ Report Recommended.

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Recommendation 10.5

SPD should conduct a staffing analysis to determine if the department is meeting its operational needs and has an adequate amount of staff to ensure its continued mission, objectives, and community policing principles.

 

SPD should conduct a staffing analysis. This analysis should follow the workload-based model. This model will allow SPD to examine the “levels of demand for police services and matches that demand with the supply for police resources:’143 In addition to examining calls for service received, this model also examines other “operational demands facing the department” 144 (e.g., police activities league [PAL], community meet­ings, training) and makes staffing determinations based on these findings.

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3. According to the Briefing Paper you received from SPD the number of officers assigned Downtown will be “Nine officers”, who are they what is their rank, shift, and actual job assignment, are supervisors included in the nine?

“The number of officers assigned to the downtown will not change. Nine officers continue to be assigned downtown.”

 

Please Review this from the link I provided above.

 

 

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OFFSITE DETECTIVE UNITS

PRECINCT DETECTIVES

North Precinct

3102 E. Diamond

ASSIGNMENT NAME IDA PRSNL # PHONE CELL

Capt. Meidl L107 388 625-4518 994-3940

Day Patrol Lt. Olson L164 1096 835-4523 994-7319

Swing/Power Shift Lt. Walker L166 216 835-4529 385-3627

M 7/5 (Front Desk) Ofc. McIntyre, Sandy 363-8281

8’s 7/5 Det. Oliver, Janice I440 530 625-4052 209-0249

F 7/5 Det. Jolley, Crystal I456 270 625-4228 990-4336

M 7/5 Det. Madsen, Tim I409 366 625-4216 994-1958

Downtown Precinct

721 W. Riverside

Capt. Arleth L104 310 625-4111 220-5448

Lt. Stevens L167 627 622-5828 435-6072

Lt. Anderson (JD) L126 326 635-4047 385-3628

Sgt. Reese L207 1012 835-4533 370-9110

F 7/5 Det. Reisenauer, Julie I414 162 835-4571 995-2139

South Precinct

2116 E. 1st

F 7/5 Capt. Richards L106 119 625-4060 220-5374

M 7/5 Lt. McCabe L169 210 625-4176_________________ ___ _ 994-0986

F 7/5 Det. Mosman, Bob I407 534 625-4249 850-6260

M 7/5 (12/10 F) Det. Snider, Ty I417 356 Contact via e-mail 385-1283

 

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Keep in mind that the above primarily represents Detective and Brass assignment and not necessarily patrol officer assignments, so it is necessary to determine exactly the caseloads are for each Detective assigned to the Precincts. In the case of the Downtown Precinct what is Detective Reisenauer’s caseload and what type of cases does she work.

 

 

4. What is the “Span of Control” for the Downtown and other Precincts, and is it consistent with national standards?

 

 

http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=1022

 

As I have expressed earlier, I have serious questions regarding “Span of Control” and “Chain of Command” at SPD which in my view were exacerbated with the move on the Administrations part to divide SPD into Divisions in order to hire exempt employees, a move which was orchestrated by Mayor Condon and Frank Straub which has been a complete failure by anyone standards.

 

5. Exactly what is SPD’s plan? It has changed so often since 2012 it is impossible to actually tell.

http://www.spokanejournal.com/local-news/spd-looks-at-moving-to-precinct-model/

The flawed concept became apparent to this Citizen when I began to read articles like the one above.

6. Where did the money come from to remodel and furnish the intermodal Center, was some of it from the Forfeiture and Contributions Fund which has been used in the past?

 

http://www.spokanejournal.com/local-news/spd-looks-at-moving-to-precinct-model/

As you can see from the link above furnishings for the North Precinct were paid for from the Forfeiture and Contributions Fund, so it would be nice to know if the same is true for the Intermodal furniture.

 

These are just a few of the questions I would like the PSC to get to the bottom of.

Respectfully,

Brian R. Breen

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I REPORT YOU DECIDE!