In the past SPD has released the names to Officers involved
in Criminal/IA Investigations in the past after the 72 hour wait period in the
Police Guild Contract.
For some reason SPD chose not to do so in this case even
though they did “ring the bell” with this press release.
There has been a lot of speculation on various social media
that the Officer involved in the press release was Dan or Scott Lesser who were
the Officers involved in the now infamous Lesser Video case which was
originally covered up by SPD. To resolve any speculation, I have decided to
release the name of the Officer involved, however I will not release
information at this point regarding the details of the case.
The Officer Involved is:
Officer Kristopher Henderson # 1294 who joined the Spokane
Police Department on 06/20/2016 as a lateral transfer from the Lakewood Police
Department.
(*** I did request the usual head shot photo and more background on Henderson however SPD refused to provide the information)
The Spokane Police Department is required by the OPO
Ordinance to notify the OPO within three days of a case like this being
initiated and like the Lesser case that has not been done.
“There are currently 10 officers stationed downtown covering three shifts.”
“Though officers are on foot or patrolling by bicycle whenever they are able to, Police Chief Craig Meidl has said that the department’s first priority will always be to respond to calls for service.”
Good job Adam Shanks, it is nice to see Meidl will answer some reporters questions he sure won’t answer mine.
As I stated in this July 26th, 2019 story;
“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?”
Along with the Media the Spokane City Council should be
asking one heck of a lot more questions of Meidl.
In case people didn’t do the math 3 shifts of 10 Cops
actually turns out to be 3.333 Cops per shift assigned Downtown, no wonder Cops
complain about showing up for roll call only to find 1 or 2 Cops in their
Sector because so many other Cops are assigned to some specialty detail.
Another common complaint I hear is that often there is no
one available at the Precincts and they are always locked up with a sign on the
door. So, the obvious question is if there are only 3.333 Cops per shift are
they all out fighting crime or do they leave someone behind to watch the store.
What the heck does this mean?
“Though officers are on foot or patrolling by bicycle whenever they are able to, Police Chief Craig Meidl has said that the department’s first priority will always be to respond to calls for service.”
Well of course SPD’s first priority should be to respond to
calls, but what all of a sudden changed that prohibits walking beats or bike
beats from responding to calls? Okay so if the staffing level per shift is
3.333 Cops and “whenever they are able to” what do the beats look like, are the
beats one Cop or two Cop beats?
To heck with trying to point out Mayor Condon and Chief
Meidl’s secrecy about how SPD is actually staffed, I’ve done that enough and it
is time other people should be asking questions. Speaking of questions Candidate
Beggs will likely remember, because he was standing right next to me after a
Public Safety Committee Meeting during which Chief Craig Meidl made the absurd
statement that he needs more SPD Captains because currently his Captains are so
overwhelmed with doing “Crime Analysis” and I tried to ask Meidl why in the
heck Captains were preforming a Crime Analysis Function, Beggs had to have
noticed how quickly Meidl escaped when someone asks legitimate.
If you are from Spokane and watched how government works
here you have to know that any issue has to be brought up over and over depending
upon the political climate.
Most people probably don’t remember when City Council Member
Mike Fagan was on the Public Safety Committee and he brought questions forward
when SPD was going to move from the STA to the Intermodal. (How are things in
DC Mitch?)
It is an election cycle so whether you are a Progressive or
a Conservative to get elected or re-elected you have to find a way to placate
the Downtown Power Structure, especially the Cowles folks so it is no surprise
Council Member Lori Kinnear who championed Condon’s choice of Meidl to become
Chief of Police wants to get input from “downtown business owners and community
members”.
But first, Kinnear said, she wants to get input from downtown business owners and community members.
“We need a process to involve the community that lives and works downtown,” Kinnear said.
So, what does the Downtown Spokane Partnership want for
staffing?
The purpose of my FB post above was twofold, first to give
folks some idea of what the Downtown staffing levels use to be, and secondly to
give other reporters a heads up on how to find some data on the ever-conflicting
data associated with calls for service Downtown. Even though I’m fortunate
enough to receive documents from other sources because Chief Meidl is wasting a
lot of resources trying to find out who leaks information to me I have to also
go through the PRR process to protect sources. For those that don’t know the
Downtown Core and the East Central Areas are Alcohol Impact Areas (AIA) and SPD
has to submit data to the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Control Board
annually.
The other Candidates for Mayor made some good statements in the Spokesman Review article linked above, but I think it is important at this point to focus on the perceived front-runners Woodward and Stuckart.
There is no question that whomever is elected Mayor will
have a significant role in whatever “flux” might continue with police oversight
but most people overlook the important fact that perhaps the most important
decision for the new Mayor will be the choice of the person to lead SPD, and
whether or not that person is willing to change the SPD Culture, buck the
political protection game, and establish the all-important transparency which
all of Mayor Condon’s choices for Chief of Police have failed miserably at
doing.
It is pretty clear to some that should Woodward be elected
she most likely will continue the policies of her Mentor David Condon, and that
would include keeping on Chief Meidl and other exempt Condon hires. Several
times she has expressed publicly her agreement with the Condon legacy which
includes his abysmal and self-serving
handling of the OPO and OPOC.
KREM: How would you improve the transparency the accountability in the mayor’s office?
“Woodward: I think Mayor Condon has done a really good job in that area. So I would continue some of the practices he’s done. I mean, for one thing, our city’s on great financial footing because of Mayor Condon. When he took over eight years ago, it was a mess, the budget was in the red. And the way that the previous mayor had increased revenue was by increasing utility rates 100% in four years. So it took his first term to balance the budget and bring those water rates back down to a manageable level. I think he’s done a fantastic job.”
As far as the OPO and OPOC is concerned Woodward
demonstrated her ignorance on that issue in an earlier SR Story by Adam Shanks
when she stated this:
“The one issue I have with the ombudsman situation as it stands now, I think the disciplinary measures need to come from the police chief,” Woodward said. “I wish we didn’t have to have an ombudsman situation, to be honest with you. I want to be able to believe that the police chief can do his job and weed out any bad apples if there are any.”
In order to try and mitigate the damage done by that
statement Woodward reacted by making a Facebook post alleging Shanks was not
accurate in his reporting.
Either Woodward herself or one of her handlers apparently
realized how dumb her FB post was and it was quickly deleted.
As far as ignorance of the entire OPO/OPOC Ordinance is
concerned Woodward isn’t alone, but more on that later.
On the other hand Candidate Stuckart caused some concern
with his constituency as well as many SPD folks when he made this public
statement:
“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.”
Most astute political observers would likely tell you that
it is not a good idea to even hint at who you might be considering for
appointment until late into the General Election, and most would recommend if a
Candidate is pressed to just say something like… “The important decisions
regarding my choice of leadership for the City will be made after very careful
study and consultation with the public and my transition team.”
Stuckart’s public statement seem to hint he will dump Schaeffer
and keep Meidl. It appears the Firefighters Union would be happy if he were to
dump Schaeffer and the Police Guild would be ecstatic if he kept Meidl.
THE IGNORANCE ASPECT:
Every time I see something like this in a story about the
OPO/OPOC, I just kind of have to shake my head.
“In 2011, an arbitrator struck down a law passed by the City Council in 2010 that, among other powers, enabled the ombudsman to publish reports. But in practice, the standard for what cases the Ombudsman releases a report on and what that report encompasses has not been so clear.”
“Based on the 2010 ruling, Logue, the ombudsman, makes policy recommendations, but does not publish reports regarding individual officers’ actions.”
I don’t necessarily attribute reference to the PERC cases as
ignorance more to a lack of understanding of the City of Spokane’s reluctance
to take on the Police Unions.
It should be made clear that when the Union filed the Unfair
Labor Practice against the City during the rein of Mary Verner the City, the
Mayor, and the City Council did absolutely nothing to defend against the
Union’s complaint (Beck Decision). That fact didn’t become known until the
results of the halfhearted appeal the City made became public and ULP Manager
Gedrose made it plain in his decision the City did nothing.
Granting the City of Spokane, a new hearing before PERC “would unfairly reward the Employer for its unexplained silence at the arbitration hearing, the reversal of its defense through a post-hearing brief, and its extensive delay in raising this objection.”—David Gedrose, PERC Unfair Labor Practice Manager.
The facts are that the National Association for Civilian
Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE) has jumped in and knows full well Mayor
Condon statements that Spokane’s Oversight is nowhere near a “national model”.
Efforts to reform the police department and enhance community involvement have made Spokane a national model, said Mayor David Condon and police Chief Frank Straub, who were at the White House on Thursday as part of a forum on community policing.
If anyone is interested in reading some background regarding
the OPO/OPOC here are some links to some, but I have to warn you they read like
a comic book.
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.
“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.
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.”
Buffalo Brian Breen 