Part I

After noticing what appeared to be some real problems with the plan to buy rifle suppressors for SPD including some strange things about the bid that was recommended by SPD to be approved by the City Council I decided to fill the City Council in on the obvious. Maybe its just me that thought it was real, real, strange WE were going to be buy from a SPRINKLER COMPANY. Of course, I happened to know who owned that company and the owner’s relationship to the Spokane Police Department and the Spokane Police Academy, so I shot this email off to the City Council and OPO on September 11, 2017 figuring someone would have sense enough to look into it and because we are talking about taxpayer money they would perform their due diligence.

Needless to say I’m quite used to City Government ignoring any information I give them about problems in City Government, as a matter of fact I kind of like it when they do because I can just sit back and watch them fall flat on their face (stay tuned), but I did get a little bit excited when I got this email from Council member Beggs.

***To be fair some City Council members do respond occasionally, Karen Stratton is very diligent about it and Council member Beggs and Fagan do occasionally, Council President Stuckart does sometimes.

 

So now, I’ve got a Lawyer and Council member that it appears is going to look into the glaring problems, like perhaps, contract conflict of interest, bid rigging, violation of State and Federal Laws, etcetera so surely a Lawyer would take one look at what was presented to Council and Mayor and say “Wait just a second, why are we buying rifle suppressors from a SPRINKLER COMPANY?”  Well, I should have followed my instincts and remembered the old adage that lawyers can’t track an elephant with a nose bleed in a snow storm, that’s why they hire Investigators! So where did they get the “more data” they requested… from the people that wanted to buy the suppressors in the first place of course.

So after getting all the new data from SPD and not independently investigating what was really going on they all vote for SPD to give $115,202.88 to a SPRINKLER COMPANY for suppressors, and to quote one Council member “I already voted for it so what can I do now?” The answer of course was LOTS! Will the LOTS ever happen, it is very doubtful as it would be far too embarrassing for the City Council and Mayor after having been warned yet again about a serious issue and not acting with due diligence.

Would a reasonable person, even if they didn’t know or remember, that they approved contracts for and wrote checks to T&B Sprinklers many, many, times look at the Agenda Sheet and Briefing Paper and ask why are we buying rifle suppressors from a SPRINKLER COMPANY? Wouldn’t it make sense to at least find out what T&B Sprinklers is all about and who Robert T Bro is before you wrote the check, or do you just rely on what the SPD tells you? At least it was only $115K plus as opposed to the $150K plus for the boulders placed near where Robert T Bro and I went to High School.

 

From the standpoint of just a Citizen of Spokane, and not an Investigative “Gadfly” it makes me wonder just how many of these “Good Ole Boy/Girl” contracts we are paying throughout the City along with all the “Good Ole Boy/Girl” exempt hires.

It doesn’t take a week to find out what T&B Sprinklers is all about, it only takes about five minutes to find out that T&B Sprinklers is a sole proprietorship that does SOMETHING, maybe with sprinklers, at the Spokane Police Academy and is owned by Robert T Bro a former SPD Officer who is a “Range Master Assistant and Armorer” at the Spokane Police Academy. Of course if you are too busy to take the time to do it, you could have one of those Assistants we Citizens pay to do that kind of stuff take care of it for you.

This really ain’t Rocket Science, anyone can do it!

***If you are wondering why T&B Sprinklers Workers Comp account is closed, it is elementary my dear Watson, they don’t have any employees.

 

Wouldn’t it make since to see if this SPRINKLER COMPANY turned SUPPRESSOR SUPPLIER had ever done business with the City in the past? Well of course it would but if you did that it might get a little stinky.

So if you actually took the little time it takes to check things out you would have found that T&B Sprinklers has been doing some kind of work at the Spokane Police Academy for years and years, so the obvious question you would ask Chief Meidl and Assistant Chief Lundgren, who know full well all about it, before you voted to buy rifle suppressors would be… “How come we are buying rifle suppressors from your SPRINKLER guy?”

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/e83221fe-4850-40cf-afa5-b1b985b23c83

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/34520510-2e1c-4b53-a004-13c31f701e4e

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/b5156570-8357-4127-b1fd-06ef04cb8998

 

One nice thing about the T&B Sprinkler contract is that SPD will of course have all of the submitted applications and invoices at their fingertips so if this is independently investigated as was suggested it will be a piece of cake… right?

 

I suppose someone could also ask Chief Meidl and Assistant Chief Lundgren why Four Seasons Landscaping Inc. who has the contract for SPD landscaping, mowing, snowplowing, etc at the Academy couldn’t just handle the Sprinklers along with all the other stuff. But I suppose that question would be one of those that would open up a whole can of worms the City Council would be real fearful of getting into, say for example if Robert T Bro the Spokane Police Academy Rangemaster Assistant and Armorer was getting greased for that work via the contract with his T&B Sprinklers… absurd right? Well if you think it is absurd you should read the email below about hiding FTEs (Full Time Employees)

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/ef57105e-6707-4665-aeb4-9674068cab8c

 

It sure doesn’t take but a few seconds to read the actual bid and see that the references the SPRINKLER COMPANY provided was the SPD Range Master, recently promoted Lt. Rob Boothe (another story for later) and Ozzie’s guy Deputy Brian Moen, which might have been a bit of a clue. So where does Council President Stuckart’s likely opponent in the Mayoral Election, Ozzie, who has been politicizing on everything he can find stand on Rifle Suppressors?…Oh that’s right, now I remember!

Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said his agency had looked into purchasing the devices for their firearms, but hasn’t moved forward not only due to costs but also how citizens might react to their use.

“Those are serious concerns. Especially in this day and age of things that are going on with the public and law enforcement,” Knezovich said.

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/oct/07/spokane-police-will-add-suppressors-to-rifles-citi/#/1

Maybe T&B Sprinklers can get the County bid if Ozzie decides to get them since his guy is on-board?

 

 

Gee I wish I had a Federal Grant to pay my SPRINKLER GUY Alex Jones, I have a Blowout scheduled soon so I’ll ask him if he knows of any Federal Grant money available to me I could use to pay him. This Sprinkler stuff for SPD gets pretty expensive sometimes.

In Part II we will look at how easy it is to find out exactly who a bidder is, who is “looking into this”, the answers being given by City Employees about this mess, like for example the Sprinkler Guy is the only one we could get these Razzu Suppressors from and other cool things.

YES, YES, I know too much information, too much data to absorb, too much documentation, I’ve heard it before and yes, the City Council has all of this and more.

 

I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!

 

 

 

The first story deals with the full court press by SPD to convince the City Council to approve OUR purchase of suppressors for SPD’s Smith & Wesson M&P15s after some prodding from someone who didn’t think things looked right (guess who) they “asked for more data and deferred for a week”. SPD was able to convince the City Council to buy the suppressors from the SPD Shooting Range Assistant and retired SPD Officer Robert T Bro a name they probably should have recognized right away given the number of times they have approved payments to him for landscape work his company T&B Sprinklers has done for the City.

Of course, to grease the way for Bob to get the bid for the suppressors through his sprinkler company also doing business as T&B Guns it was necessary to give a waiver to him from having to obtain the mandatory City Business License…funny how that stuff works.

I would also be interested in knowing if the City Council was informed that the Glock service weapon 320 or so Officers carry as duty weapons, and from which considerably more rounds have been fired during SPD OIS cases produces a decibel level around 159.8 dB. Since the unsuppressed Smith & Wesson M&P15 produces a decibel level of around 167 dB and the unsuppressed Glock produces a decibel level around 159.8 dB. if hearing damage is the concern wouldn’t it make sense to equip all of the Glocks with suppressors in order to meet OSHA standards? I realize that would be quite expensive, and would likely also need costly modification of the sights as well as new or modified holsters we would have to invest in but if the premise is to prevent hearing damage doing so is a must.

Since T&B Sprinklers can provide suppressors for Glocks via GEMTECH (pictured below) and are providing the suppressors for the S&W M&P15s perhaps they could be named a sole source and we could get a good deal on Glock suppressors to prevent further hearing damage to the Public and Officers?

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/oct/07/spokane-police-will-add-suppressors-to-rifles-citi/#/1

 

This second story, really seems to contradict the first… given Chief Craig Meidl’s statements:

Police Chief Craig Meidl, whose agency is set to receive suppressors on their service rifles, said the difference in sound was negligible with the devices and he didn’t have strong feelings about the proposed changes.

“Having heard the difference between a firearm that has a suppressor, and one that does not, I will tell you it is not a great concern of mine if the community decided to allow that,” Meidl said.

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/oct/07/silencer-bill-gets-mixed-reaction-from-inland-nort/

 

My question would be if the “difference in sound was negligible with the devices” or “so small or unimportant as to be not worth considering; insignificant.”, why in the heck did we spend all the money especially when you consider as far as the public is concerned the further the distance from the muzzle of the weapon the less likelihood of hearing damage. Hopefully in the case of SPD weapons the Public will be kept at a safe distance from the muzzle. Given the number of shots fired during SPD OIS cases I would also wonder if there has been hearing loss problems reported by Officers other than Major King, that have been involved SPD OIS cases and especially those who have been in more than one OIS.

I guess since the City Council was informed of concerns regarding the purchase of suppressors for SPD rifles and “asked for more data and deferred for a week” we can assume they did their due diligence, received input from folks other than SPD, reviewed the circumstances surrounding the bid process, and then came up with a decision in the best interest of the Citizens of Spokane…RIGHT?

 

I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!

 

 

 

 

 

When you try and hide police misconduct, in the end it just doesn’t work. Sooner or later someone will find out and when they do people including the OPO for example will begin to question credibility as well as all the “We will be transparent.” Baloney Stuff.

Not only the circumstances surrounding Meidl’s press conference about Officer Scott’s DV cases, are odd at best, but the misrepresentations he made during the press conference have to make people wonder just exactly what the true facts are. If this was another case of trying to get out in front of more bad SPD publicity, it wasn’t a very good job. Then again perhaps Meidl just doesn’t read his emails or give a rip about what the OPO and others have to say?

 

The email and attachment pictured below, pretty much says it all!

 

I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/oct/03/sheriffs-office-recommends-three-domestic-violence/

A little background, there is lots more!

https://examplepro.me/2016/04/18/a-conversation-with-interim-chief-meidl-and-major-justin-lundgrenpart-five/

https://examplepro.me/2017/02/04/sheading-some-light-on-ia-case-c-16-044/

https://examplepro.me/2017/06/15/the-mcmurtrey-cover-up-continues/

https://examplepro.me/2016/04/01/important-breaking-news/

https://examplepro.me/2016/04/03/a-conversation-with-interim-chief-meidl-and-major-justin-lundgrepart-one/

https://examplepro.me/2016/03/08/prr-update-lydia-mell-taylor/

 

This is some of the junk you get today!

https://my.spokanecity.org/police/accountability/complaints/

https://static.spokanecity.org/documents/police/accountability/internal-affairs-reports/2016/ia-report-16-001.pdf

https://static.spokanecity.org/documents/police/accountability/internal-affairs-reports/2016/ia-report-16-014.pdf

https://static.spokanecity.org/documents/police/accountability/internal-affairs-reports/2016/ia-report-16-040.pdf

 

There is a lot of interesting stuff in the IA Summaries but only if you know what to look for, for example considering the Officer Scott DV case one might find this summary interesting from a number of different aspects. In the summary below you see that a SCSO Deputy made a complaint against an SPD Cop who had ask to Deputy to stand down during the Deputy’s Domestic Violence investigation so that the City Cop could put a tracking device on the suspect’s vehicle.

https://static.spokanecity.org/documents/police/accountability/internal-affairs-reports/2016/ia-report-16-035.pdf

 

Even a novice investigator could figure out that there might be some problems going on between the SCSO and SPD, although they would of course deny it. Beyond that Washington State requires that a warrant be obtained in order to place a GPS tracking device on a vehicle. Only a small part of the Deputy’s statement is included in the summary, and it happens to be a part that gives rise to the unfounded finding. Had the entire IA Report been posted as has been done in the past, many of the obvious questions might have been answered and there wouldn’t be a need for a reporter to do a PRR.

I find it a bit amazing that that SPD couldn’t handle the redaction of just 48 IA Cases in 2016, especially with that new fancy redaction software we bought for them… I got bridges for sale!

Interestingly Chief Meidl when confronted by a reporter about IA Summaries instead of Full IA Reports being posted says the OPO was all in about just summaries being posted. The truth is the OPO was apparently at one point okay with it, however upon his further investigation will be making a recommendation to SPD that IA Cases in their entirety be posted as in the past. Perhaps Chief Meidl should pay a little more attention to what is going on at OPOC meetings.

https://vimeo.com/album/2861364/video/232717476

 

Although I strongly disagree with Council Member Beggs on the Debra Conklin issue, I whole heartily agree with his statements in these Inlander Stories.

https://www.inlander.com/Bloglander/archives/2017/08/10/spokane-police-hunt-for-internal-leaker-fails-undermines-other-efforts-toward-transparency

https://www.inlander.com/Bloglander/archives/2017/02/28/spokane-police-officer-caught-cursing-at-suspect-on-camera-files-complaint-against-leaker

https://www.inlander.com/spokane/loose-lips/Content?oid=5107347

 

NOTE TO OTHER REPORTERS!!!

Good questions, but I can tell you from experience you really have to pin this guy down. Of course, when you do you run the risk that he will refuse to respond to you in any way! Get your antennas up on this one!

 

https://www.facebook.com/KHQLocalNews/videos/1715260138505502/

 

I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!