Media stories like this one are always perplexing to me because they seem to always leave out important information. Hopefully one of the CC Members would have asked the right questions of Assistant Chief Lundgren during this meeting.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2019/jul/25/council-hears-from-city-police-on-downtown-policin/
“There are 10 officers assigned to the downtown police precinct. Five more officers are on the way, thanks to a voter-approved public safety levy, but they must first attend the police academy and are not expected to join the precinct until 2020.”
The obvious question would be how many of those 10 Officers who are assigned Downtown are actually working Downtown during any given shift or are 10 Officers assigned Downtown every shift?
It is a critical question in my view because Chief Craig Meidl has completely done away the long history of providing any public documents relating SPD Staffing. As hard as I have tried via PRRs this is the only document currently available, and if Chief Meidl is also hiding actual resource deployment from the City Council how can they make informed decisions?
Heck even Meidl’s own people suggested at least taking it down to the Sgt. level?
*** RIP JD Anderson and thank you!
THREADING THE NEEDLE AND WHOPPERS REPORT!
I have no idea how many Chief of Police presentations I have seen over the years, and every one contained “Whoopers”. Chief Craig Meidl’s presentation before the Office of Police Ombudsman Commission was pretty close to his Mentor Frank Straub’s record for “Whoopers”. Even though there were more including his statement that the COPS/DOJ Collaborative Review was the result of Straub’s contacts inside of COPS, I’ll just mention two here.
Let me first add that apparently Council President Ben Stuckart didn’t take the time to see if Meidl did a good job of “threading a needle” with the OPOC. I’m sure if he talked to members of the OPOC as well as some of his constituency they would tell him Meidl didn’t thread the needle in his OPOC presentation.
“Schaeffer just wants to create controversy,” Stuckart says. “And Meidl is much more careful in his words. Meidl’s threading a needle. And he’s very capable of doing that. And I think that’s why he’s so respected in the community, and by his own employees.”
Needless to say Stuckart’s statements to the Inlander have caused quite a stir at SPD and among many of his constituents as it appears he intends to dump Schaeffer and keep Meidl should he be elected, on the other hand many people think it is a given that Nadine Woodward will not only keep Theresa Sanders on to continue the Condon legacy but also Meidl to continue the Condon/Straub legacy as he has been doing since Condon made him Chief of Police. (I did reach out to Ben Stuckart via email to see if he was accurately quoted in the Inlander story however he never responded)
You can watch the July 19, 2019 OPOC Meeting at this link and decide for yourself if Meidl threaded the needle.
One of Meidl’s big “Whoopers” was trying to pump his own tires by stating the it was he who initiated the plan to change the SPD Use of Force Policy, nothing could have been further from the truth and I’m sure that some members of the OPOC were laughing to themselves, as I was when I heard that. There is NO QUESTION whatsoever that efforts to change the SPD Use of Force Policy were initiated by OPO Logue the minutes of OPOC Meetings in November of 2017 clearly reflect that it was Logue and not Meidl who started the ball rolling. There was even this November 13, 2017 SR Story dealing with how it got started.
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/nov/13/police-chief-ombudsman-say-they-want-to-rewrite-us/
As usual I couldn’t keep my mouth shut with such a “Whooper”, especially since I knew about all the resistance to changing the Use of Force Policy there was within SPD and continues to this day. So, I used the second public forum to point out the “Whooper” while Chief Meidl quickly exited. If you watch the meeting video you might notice how PC OPO Logue was about finally admitting it he and not Meidl who brought the policy change forward. The big question is… will the Guild approve any changes in working conditions which could result in any policy change and is this all just an exercise in futility without Guild approval, and how are Mayor Condon and Chief Meidl doing with the ongoing super-secret contract negotiations with the Police Unions.
I have a confession to make! That inadvertent cough people in the meeting audience heard from me during Meidl’s presentation wasn’t really a cough… I as trying to cover-up a belly laugh when Meidl stated SPD got a Gold Seal of Approval from the Department of Justice on their Use of Force Policy. Nothing could be further from the truth and for those that aren’t aware COPS/DOJ never finished the Collaborative Review Process we paid for.
“City Council President Ben Stuckart said Wednesday he hadn’t seen the Times report, but expressed frustration with the Trump White House. Stuckart, once a Democratic candidate for Congress, has led pushes on the council to combat the creation of a religious registry, citing Trump’s campaign rhetoric (which hasn’t been proposed), and condemning his decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris accord, a multinational climate agreement.”
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/nov/22/mayor-police-chief-lament-lack-of-justice-departme/
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/sep/20/shawn-vestal-feds-retreat-from-police-reforms-leav/#/0
Buffalo Brian Breen 