Why in the world would Politicians and Law Enforcement Leaders running Spokane want to somewhat revert back to a system that actually worked back in the day starting in the late 1960s but was ripped apart by the Politicians of yesteryear… everyone knows that the way things were done in the past were worthless.
Commissioner George Marlton said he’ll draw the line at more than one contract, which he said saves money by eliminating duplication.
“It provides more efficient services for the dollar,” Marlton said.
Of course, there is always the blame game unless there is real respect and constant communication between taxpayer funded organizations and Cops no matter whether services are centralized or de-centralized into so many different unaccountable mental health and drug addiction cottage industry entities making constant communication and interaction impossible.
Maybe it is just a matter of “Leaders” like Breean Beggs and Craig Meidl not being around Spokane when things worked well and folks like George Marlton and Steve (Cornbread) Hasson where in the Political Power structure.
“The city has funding for the effort thanks to the 2019 public safety levy approved by voters, according to Spokane City Council President Breean Beggs, who has long supported the concept.
“We just need police to say ‘yeah, we’ll hire them or contract them and here’s the (funding request),’ ” Beggs said.”
I sure don’t remember anything in the 2019 public safety levy that called for SPD to hire Mental Health Professionals, there was of course the good ole catchall “and allowing for other matters properly related thereto” which allows Politicians to use taxpayer’s dollars for anything they want no matter how dumb the expenditure might be. I suppose no one even considered that having SPD hiring Mental Health Professionals sure has heck could be a big conflict when it comes to getting privileged communications and records regarding treatment for mental health and drug addiction issues for an individual suspect of committing a crime…like Murder for example, but then again Politicians and Chiefs of Police never have to do those type of search warrants and never testified in a 3.5 hearing.
“Over the course of Meidl’s career in law enforcement, he said the quantity and scope of calls police respond to has “exploded.””
The truth is Meidl didn’t start his career in Spokane Law enforcement until January 31, 1994, and in all likelihood never did call Community Mental Health for assistance on a call, or for that matter probably never assisted Community Mental Health Pros when they asked for assistance with one of the 25 or so patients the folks at Community Mental Health had on their caseload, I seriously doubt he ever even made the trip down to 107 S. Division.
Buffalo Brian Breen 