What is the plan? Does anyone know?

 

One of the most critical positions in any Police Department is the individual that supervises the Investigative Division simply because investigations done by any Department are always subject to very close scrutiny from the public and the media especially in cases involving misconduct of cops, whether the investigations are criminal or administrative in nature. I was fortunate enough to have some pretty darn good Investigative Division Captains who pretty much allowed me to do my own thing, and on several occasions backed me when a Chief of Police was concerned about SPD’s public image that would result from my investigation.

 

With Mayor Condon’s choice of Craig Meidl as the new SPD Chief of Police, and the very likely confirmation of Meidl as the Chief, both Condon and the City Council, will have created a significant problem not only for SPD, but also other law enforcement agencies who have their Officer Involved Deaths investigated by the SIRR Team. When other law enforcement agencies are being investigated and SPD is the lead agency on the SIRR Team the agency being investigated sure as hell doesn’t want some smart lawyer to bring up the lead investigative agency has a nepotism issue during a subsequent civil litigation which always includes discovery and depositions.

 

http://www.inlander.com/spokane/checks-and-balances/Content?oid=2189002

 

No matter how you cut it Craig Meidl’s appoint of his inexperienced wife as the Investigative Division Captain is a clear violation of the City of Spokane Nepotism Policy. Even the mere appointment of Tracie Meidl violated the Nepotism Policy, so obviously in order to skirt the policy Mayor Condon had to make it appear as if Jim McDevitt was the sole individual responsible for her appointment to the position. Even if you believe that, you have to ask yourself why Craig Meidl wouldn’t strenuously object to it because of the serious Nepotism issue. Any Chief of Police worth their salt knows full well it would cause serious problems and questions.

 

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/7301ea18-8cfe-44b0-8355-5fa5cc61a248

Is this delegating the supervision of Tracie Meidl to a “panel of officers” the plan? If so boy is that dumb!

 

http://www.inlander.com/spokane/tall-order/Content?oid=2853922

 

 

I think we can add the Nepotism issue to all the other unanswered questions, which given the current political climate will never be asked, or answered without some digging.

 

https://examplepro.me/2016/08/13/unanswered-questions/

 

https://examplepro.me/2016/08/13/unanswered-question-addendum/

 

If you had access to all of the Public Records that I do, I think it would become clear to you that Craig and Tracie Meidl must have a close and loving relationship, which of course is wonderful, but not from the standpoint of leading a police department in the interest of the Community and not the marriage. That is why there are always Nepotism Policies.

There has always been quite a bit of work related interaction between Craig Meidl and his wife Tracie, including him providing her with a copy of a Salute complaint, as I have mentioned in the past.

 

Here is another one of several you might be interested in which Chief Meidl forwarded to his wife. It is regarding the 2015 nearly million-dollar overtime budget overrun projection… interesting especially in light of the ongoing budget process and the staffing analysis. I wonder what 2016 looks like.

 

Don’t get me wrong… EVERY supervisor including Tracie Meidl should have a really good handle on their overtime budget, I just thought it was interesting Chief Meidl forwarded it to his wife right away even though she was outside of the original distribution list, and working directly under the supervision of then Chief Frank Straub.

 

 

The Nepotism Issue is of course just one of the issues the City Council should get specific answers to prior to confirming Meidl, but I for one am not going to rely on them to get those ever so important answers, to ever those so important questions.

 

 

I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!!