This should give you an idea where this is going!
Month: January 2016
UPDATE PAID LEAVE!!!
I have developed quite a bit of information regarding the Arleth paid leave issue and have been able to confirm some of the information, and I am waiting for more confirmation. I have emailed City Administrator Teresa Sanders requesting comment.
I have confirmed that the City Council has requested a briefing from Interim Chief Dobrow regarding the Arleth paid leave issue. I hope they also request a briefing regarding the Smithson issue.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/jan/04/spokane-police-chief-places-leader-of-downtown-pre/
Keep an eye on any news stories dealing with SPD moving a Precinct from Downtown to the Intermodal Center.
PAID ADMINISTATIVE LEAVE SEEMS TO BE THE THING THESE DAYS!!
With the recent placing of SPD Captain Brad Arleth on paid administrative I thought it would be a good idea to update the Lynden Smithson issue, and make a couple of comments regarding the Arleth paid leave.
I have only heard unsubstantiated rumors as to why Arleth was placed on leave, so I can’t report much at this point, however I can tell you that currently at SPD various factions are in the typical battle for power which always happens when a leadership vacuum is created, and Cops can get even more cut-throat during that process than the private sector does. We will have to see how this plays out.
THE LYNDEN SMITHSON ISSUE!
After some prodding I did receive some information via email from Nancy Isserlis regarding why Lynden Smithson was place on 5 weeks of paid administrative leave. I’m glad Nancy Isserlis chose to respond to my email as I feel transparency and the truth are the best approach for any government administration. However, our email exchange causes me even more concern because of the circumstances surrounding the paid leave and how it may have been handled. Hopefully it wasn’t handled like the Cotton/Straub case where it appears the Condon administration thought the truth would never get out. In the Lynden Smithson case it very likely would have never been known if it hadn’t been caught in the PRR.
In the first email copied below, I try and demonstrate to Isserlis that a response to me would be a good idea based on some interesting background surrounding Mr. Smithson.
City Attorney Isserlis responds stating that Smithson was placed on paid administrative leave after she was contacted by an outside agency conducting an investigation into a case involving “Staphone Fuentes”. From the standpoint of my PRR since Nancy Isserlis was the individual contacted by the “outside agency” I would have to assume Isserlis documented that contact, as any lawyer would, and it along with all the other documents will be made available to me.
Like any Investigative Reporter the next step is to figure out who the hell “Staphone Fuentes” actually is, so I check open and closed sources and come up with the name “Stafone Fuentes” who is the only individual I can determine has been investigated by “an outside agency”.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2015/jul/01/oxycontin-ringleader-gets-50-year-prison-sentence/
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/oct/07/drug-ring-defendant-could-avoid-prison-with/
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/may/08/women-smuggled-drugs-and-cash-investigators-say/
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/mar/14/dozens-arrested-in-raids-throughout-spokane/
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/mar/14/federal-drug-ring-suspect-implicated-downtown-shoo/
http://www.spokesman.com/tags/stafone-fuentes/
In an effort to clear things up I send this email to Nancy Isserlis.
I then received this response from Isserlis which troubles me in three areas. First, I would think that if a City Attorney placed one of her staff on paid administrative leave for five weeks she would have done reports and would know the correct spelling of the individual who was the target of an investigation that lead to her employee being placed on administrative leave. Second, Isserlis does not answer my question as to whether the issue involved a highly publicized Federal Case. Third, the timing of placing Smithson on paid administrative leave in March and April of 2015 would IMO more likely coincide with the trials of co-conspirators in the case rather than Fuentes…but I guess we will have to wait for the PRR Documents.
I have not received a response to this last email I sent to Nancy Isserlis where I ask some pointed question. I am hopeful I will receive a response soon.
I REPORT YOU DECIDE!
SPD’S CRIMINAL INTELLIGENCE UNIT…WHO ARE THEY…WHAT DO THEY DO???
The recent Public Records Document Dump supplies some information in that regard but not enough to really know for sure.
Let me start by explaining what Criminal Intelligence Units are, or at least should be, and then go from there. Criminal Intelligence Units are common in mid-size to large police departments. Their purpose is to utilize the “Intelligence Process” which consists of planning and direction, collection, processing/collation, analysis, evaluation, dissemination, and reevaluation, to collect all types of information on criminal activity and utilize the information to make cases and protect citizens.
The first SPD Criminal Intelligence Unit was established in 1973 by Police Chief Wayne Hendren in anticipation of the influx of criminals during EXPO 74. The Unit was staffed by one Detective (me) who had to start from square one to get the unit up and running.
According to the documents I received the current SPD Criminal Intelligence Unit has grown considerably and is an odd mixture of staffing, some of which I question;
1 SPD Sargent
2 SPD Detectives
1 Spokane Public Schools SRO
1 Border Patrol Agent
1 National Guard Analyst
1 Specialist (former SPD Detective)
1 Civilian SPD Crime and Intelligence Analyst
2 Senior Volunteers
Keeping in mind that the type of information a Criminal Intelligence Unit collects is in most cases very sensitive and confidential. Any legitimate Police Chief will tell you that the three law enforcement units most susceptible to corruption and abuse are Criminal Intelligence Units, Drug Units, and Vice Units, so I am at a complete loss as to why a Detective with a long well publicized IA history which includes some “Brady Cop” problems and was one of the cops who was tipping Karl Thompson off would be assigned to CIU…it doesn’t make sense to me. Nor does it make any sense to me to have Senior Volunteers accessing very sensitive information.
So what is the big deal Breen?? Perhaps there isn’t a big deal and the SPD CIU is collecting and maintaining Intelligence Information consistent with the Federal Privacy Act, and established national standards…but who knows as there has never been an audit, nor is there a City Ordinance covering the collection and retention of Intelligence Information similar to what Seattle was forced to do when their intelligence unit was caught illegally collecting and maintaining files on a lot of people, including politicians, legitimate business owners, religious groups…and all that kind of stuff. I just wonder if my file is as big as Doug Clark’s…seriously though who knows?
One thing I noticed back in April was that the City and the County entered into to a Memorandum of Understanding transferring the CIU Database to the Sheriff’s Office
Most law enforcement agencies have policies governing Intelligence Information, and I’m sure SPD does as well, but the question I have had and expressed for a long time is “Are they followed, and if not how would we know?”
I REPORT YOU DECIDE!
Buffalo Brian Breen 