And I have to be a little more guarded in my stories, I want my readers to take a look at his email sent by Teresa Sanders to Terri Pfister on October 21^st, 2015 at 4:20 PM.

 

The email was in response to Pfister’s request for any information that would have been responsive to MY Public Records Request as well as all of the PRRs submitted by other media organizations. We all now know that Sanders did not tell the truth in that Public Record. We also know that all of the records in her possession were NOT RELEASED several months after Condon’s re-election. As a result of Sander’s outright dishonesty regarding what she had in her possession the truth was hidden not only from me but all of the media outlets.

 

The first response I received to my PRR was on October 29^th, 2015 eight days after Sanders sent this email to Pfister, and of course that response did not contain any of the records Sanders had in her possession, those of course were not released until months later after one hell of a lot of pressure to do so. I can’t speak directly at this point to what other media received in their responses from the City but I am sure not one of them received any of the responsive documents.

 

The question now is… “WHO if anyone is going to step up to the plate and take the City on as a result of the Condon Administrations illegal conduct?” I guess we will have to wait and see. Clearly everyone submitting a PRR has standing to pursue the matter in Court the only place in Spokane where there is the least bit of opportunity to get to the truth.

 

ON ANOTHER NOTE!!!

 

Big City Council decision today on Meidl, and whether or not the City Council will decide to allow the Condon Administration to continue the tactics employed above, or do the right thing… WE SHALL SEE!

 

Craig Meidl is of course getting more firsthand experience in the cause he cares about… “Politics”.

 

Perhaps Craig Meidl has aspirations of running for elected office some day???

 

 

 

I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!!  

 

 

 

 

Is depicted in the three Meidl shows that have taken place thus far!

 

Now the Citizens of Spokane have to rely on the judgement of the Spokane City Council to determine if the Spokane Police Department will be led by someone who’s recent and past history clearly demonstrates a leadership style that includes all of the above.

 

Some Councilmembers have stated that the decision concerning the individual chosen to run SPD is perhaps the most critical decision they will make during their tenure on the City Council, the question is will they truly examine the evidence and make a decision based solely on what is good for the Citizens and not underlying ideologies or agendas. Condon and the City Council completely ignored the warnings not to hire Frank Straub because of his well-documented lack of control and leadership in White Plains NY, and Indianapolis Indiana, will the City Council do the same with Meidl where the same is true? Condon already has ignored the warnings and his reasons are obvious he must have a pliable, non-transparent leadership in place to help him hide his own failures as the ultimate leader of SPD.

 

I’m getting a little tired of the constant “We need to move on” cry from Condon, Meidl, and other City Leaders. I personally moved on regarding the infamous Salute and 505 Facebook page soon after the realization that David Condon, Frank Straub, nor any members of SPD leadership would ever deal with those issues in an honest straight forward and transparent way. Meidl is handling questions about those issues in his public showcase exactly the same way he and SPD leadership and Condon dealt with them while Meidl was third in command at SPD during the Salute and the 505 Facebook page despite the national embarrassment both were.

 

Let me reiterate that the Salute and the 505 Facebook Page are ancillary to the issue of whether or not Meidl can lead SPD. Did Meidl run away from those issues when he was an SPD leader? Does his history of leadership at SPD demonstrate that instead of facing problems he ran away from them? The evidence is quite clear even from Meidl’s own statements that has continually runaway and there is NO Evidence that he won’t continue to do so.

 

For today for the most part let’s just take a close look at his answers in this video:

 

https://vimeo.com/179137281

 

Remember the promises that Councilperson Kinnear made that Meidl would be asked and would answer all of the Community’s questions including those submitted in writing? The video above clearly shows that Kinnear’s statements ended up NOT BEING TRUE, the question is WHY and especially when many of those unasked and unanswered questions went directly to Meidl’s ability to lead SPD. Was there some kind of an agreement between Kinnear and Meidl beforehand to not deal with hardball questions?

I’m going to primarily stick to the 29 questions I had which were glossed over by Kinnear and Meidl near the end of the video. My reason for doing so is because along with my questions Kinnear was provided a packet of public records that gave the answers to the questions. I suggest that those who submitted written questions take a very careful look at Meidl’s answers to your own questions. The gloss over of my questions begin at 40.10 on the video. You can find the questions and the truth in the links below.

 

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

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

 

***Note to Councilperson Kinnear. Despite your statement regarding my questions that Meidl “has covered them before”, he never has covered them, nor if you or someone else doesn’t ask them he never will!

 

Please be aware that last night at the second Meidl public show one of my questions, “Who “yelled” present arms?”, was asked twice by a gentleman and both times Meidl refused to identify Detective Bryan Tafoya. It is clear that Meidl will never truthfully answer questions regarding the Salute or the 505 Facebook Page. You might also note that Meidl refuses to answer questions regarding Furniture-gate using the typical “ongoing case” refusal, and one of my questions dealt specifically with the ethics of his decision to act for the City in Mediating Arleth’s appeal when he was in fact the person who made the complaint against Arleth, instead of recusing himself, an issue that goes directly to the heart of Meidl’s judgment and ethics. Is that a good indicator of things to come if the CC confirms him? Given Meidl’s leadership history one would have to conclude the answer is YES!

 

Did Meidl as third in command of SPD run away from the Salute and 505 Facebook Page issue that caused so much public outcry? His own words in the gloss over of my questions, if you are willing to believe them, clearly shows he did run away.

 

After outlining to Kinnear all of the media attention and “the dark season” facing SPD at the time of the Salute and the 505 Facebook Page, Meidl, when someone very much needed to standup and be a leader ran away again. Meidl told Kinnear in one breath that those issues “needed to be addressed”, but the fact is they never were, nor did he make any effort to address those issues other than to demonstrate his undying support of Karl Thompson.

If you or the City Council are willing to believe Meidl’s current story that his writings weren’t his own true feelings, they were simply a “compilation” of the feelings expressed to him by other cops suffering “darkness” and “depression” then I have a bridge in Brooklyn NY for sale you may be interested in.

 

I can’t help but wonder if Meidl even knows the real background of this great man Karl Thompson he keeps pumping up time and again. Does he even remember when Karl Thompson dumped 5 rounds into Chris Felch’s truck while another cop was in control of Felch and a weapon to Felch’s head? Just one of many issues Thompson had some even prior to Thompson landing at SPD.

 

One has to ask if the “Cowboy Culture” at SPD and the “Us against them attitude” Meidl admits exists now is a direct result of leadership, including his own, running away instead of facing issues head on. Craig Meidl should go back and read the entire Felch case file.

 

Meidl offers the explanation to Kinnear that the reason that he attended the Salute as an SPD Leader was;

“I was attending …I showed up because again I think what I heard there was a general feeling on the department that no one in leadership was coming forward to express their concern for the rest of the department so when I was attending it was to show my support for the rest of the department I know you guys are suffering from a myriad of emotions and there is a dark cloud over the agency.”

 

So which one is it? The explanation he gives above or the other explanations, because Thompson was a revered cop, decorated Nam Vet, and mentor to many cops?

“It was about the Karl Thompson we knew as busy officer with a very good work ethic.”

 

IF the explanation he gave Kinnear is true the CC and the Community have to question his judgment as a leader in even attending and whether or not he will continue to put the concerns of the officers he leads ahead of the Community concerns.

 

IF the other explanations he offers are true the CC and the Community have to question his judgement about the people he respects and reveres, including the ones he has just promoted to leadership roles at SPD.

As you will see in the video Kinnear asks him to talk a little bit about the Facebook page.

 

“Ya, I know one of the employees on the department had a Facebook Page that they set up.”

 

Meidl knows damn good and well that it was his recently promoted Major who set up the 505 Facebook Page yet he runs away from that fact, and Councilperson Kinnear allows him to run away yet again.

 

“Again, about that time is when I canceled Facebook.”

 

IF you believe that statement, I’ve still got that bridge in Brooklyn. On the other had IF you do believe it you as well as the CC should be asking why with all of the media coverage of the 505 Facebook Page many documenting negative and derogatory comments posted by Cops as well as new Major Kevin Kings involvement would Meidl as an SPD Leader cancel his own Facebook account and not monitor all of those derogatory postings by cops and taken action. Was it because he again wanted to run away and hide his head in the sand? Is that what we can expect from him as Chief of Police?

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/sirens/2011/nov/04/thompson-supporters-express-outrage/

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/sirens/2011/oct/17/police-use-505-support-thompson/

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/sirens/2011/oct/03/spokane-police-prepare-busy-time/

 

 

“The bracelets…I never had one… I know there were blue bracelets that were sold and my understanding was that was monies that came from those were going to go towards his family.”

***Meidl did admit in the public forums that he gave money to Thompson’s family. Something I never really understood since we taxpayers paid for Thompsons entire defense, he was still working and being paid by SPD right up until the time he was led away in handcuffs and Saluted, as well as the coverage he had with the phony divorce to protect his assets.

 

So where did the all the blue bracelet money go Kevin King?

 

There is much more information and documents available that give a good picture of Meidl’s lack of leadership skills, including his own formal statement to Chris Cappel where he documents how he ran away instead of confronting the Frank Straub issue, and amazingly even though Meidl was Straub’s Assistant Chief he didn’t observe the terrible conduct all of the other people document in their statements.

The big question at this point is… “Does the City Council really have the best interest of the Community at the forefront?” We will find out August 22^nd, 2016!

 

 

I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!

 

What a sad, sad, display by Councilperson Lori Kinnear who obviously has NO INTEREST in getting to the truth. If one were counting confirmation votes you would have to assume Kinnear’s will be to keep Meidl. If the Chairperson of the Public Safety Committee has no interest in getting to the truth we are in for another long, long, ride.!!!!

https://vimeo.com/179137281

______________

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

 

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

 

 

I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!!

I took the risk of going to one of the roll outs of candidates Jacquelyn MacConnell and Bart Louge. It was worth the risk as Deb Conklin did allow me to ask more than one question and some follow-ups, of course she did have to kind of hold me back so some of the very few people in attendance could ask their questions.

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/aug/16/both-spokane-police-ombudsman-finalists-praised-af/comments/

 

I chose to go to the roll out at the ECCC for a number of reasons. First because the topic was supposed to be “Disproportionate minority contact” but there were only a couple of questions regarding that specific topic, and I did stay on topic until some folks opened up other topics. Also among the reasons was that East Central is my old “Hood”, and when SPD was actually involved in “Community Oriented Policing” I developed the concept of “Neighborhood Investigative Resource Officer”, so as a Detective for several years I investigated all the cases in that neighborhood from the theft of garbage can lids, all the way up to Murder. I was lucky enough to get to know the people of East Central and they got to know me. As a matter of fact, during that time I had an office all to myself in the ECCC and played the role of Santa Clause for the kids at Christmas for the ECCC Christmas parties.

https://www.ncjrs.gov/nij/cops_casestudy/spokane.html

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19930930&id=0mxXAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5fADAAAAIBAJ&pg=6846,6036430&hl=en

 

 

Knowing the Hood, I wasn’t at all surprised at the very low turnout, I don’t even know if anyone from the East Central Community even attended. As far as minorities attending there were maybe two or three. But that is the way East Central is… they won’t bother as they feel they really don’t actually have a voice.

https://examplepro.me/2016/07/10/terry-vs-ohioive-got-the-power/

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

 

Mike Fagan was there for a while, but he was the only Council Member I noticed. So far I have been to two meetings where Mike Fagan was present, and in both meetings there were free cookies. I don’t know if the free cookies were a factor or not (Just kidding Mike). 🙂 🙂

 

Given all of the recent discussion on “Disproportionate minority contact”, and the “Sanctuary City Ordinance” I would have thought there would be more people and Council Members present. But that’s the way it goes. My question, and I did get to ask the first question again, dealt with the crux of issues surrounding both “Disproportionate minority contacts” and the “Sanctuary City Ordinance”. The question was concerning the candidate’s knowledge of the controlling cases and subsequent case law regarding Terry v Ohio both at the Federal and State level, something the Community doesn’t have an understanding of nor SPD based upon all of the cases I have reviewed recently. Jacquelyn MacConnell had the upper hand on that one, but only as far Federal Law is concerned and not Washington State’s more restrictive laws in that regard. I did provide both candidates with a link I prepared for them from the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys “CONFESSIONS, SEARCH, SEIZURE, AND ARREST A GUIDE FOR POLICE OFFICERS AND PROSECUTORS MAY 2015 MANUAL” It would be a good read for a lot of people including SPD Cops.

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/4d691826-7765-4a38-b26f-70ed384f1ec7

 

It is really important for the OPO to know this stuff, and especially since the OPO reviews Body Camera footage of Terry v Ohio contacts by SPD.

 

SO WHAT WAS MY IMPRESSION OF THE CANDIDATES?

*** Not that it really matters of course but here you go.

Keep in mind that my contact with them and my ability to interview them was limited, but my initial impression is that either one would be a very good candidate. As a matter of fact, the OPOC should consider finding a way to hire both as it appears to me they would complement each other and hopefully someday the OPO will actually have some powers. Don’t hold your breath though!

https://examplepro.me/2015/10/23/breaking-down-the-opo-ordinance/

You might wonder why I say hiring both would be good if the OPO doesn’t have independent investigative powers. Because the OPO, as a result of the Union contracts, is primarily a PR position with most of the Ombudsperson’s time being spent getting face time with the Community it is difficult for one person to devote all of the time necessary to do a real quality job of the actual OPO work.

To be clear, I did tell Jacquelyn MacConnell that I would not hold it against her that she is of Scottish decent me being Irish and all. I will also not hold it against former Marine Bart Louge that he was unable to recite his 11^th General Order. Some of the folks in attendance will understand what I’m talking about. Jacquelyn MacConnell grew up in a Marine Corps family but made it clear her father didn’t force her to memorize the General Orders… and that is a good thing.

Realistically some short sighted people will hold MacConnell’s law enforcement background against her, and hold Louge’s military background against him, that is just the way some folks think.

The important thing is whether they are ethical, honest, and willing to call BS when it is appropriate. One thing to remember is that Bart Louge during his stint in the Marine Corps was a leader of Men and Women Marines. But by the same token Jacquelyn MacConnell in her law enforcement career also was a leader of Men and Women Cops. Both of them should know the good, bad, and ugly that goes along with that responsibility. Ordinarily I would give the advantage in that area to MacConnell because Cops are far more legally protected in labor issues than any Marine ever has been or ever will be. However, Louge has been in the Interim OPO position long enough to realize that it ain’t like the Corps and Cops have one hell of a lot more protection and power than any Marine and Louge actually admitted that during the forum… so I have to call that one a push.

I considered Jacquelyn MacConnell as a little more matter of fact than Bart Logue in this setting, which is, from my perspective a good trait but she also has had considerable positive experience in community interaction as a cop. Bart Louge on the other hand came off to me as less matter of fact and more interactive which is also a good trait. Like I said I think they would complement each other if they were working together.

You always have to keep in mind that in forums like this the questions for the candidates from the public are always, for the most part, well intended softball questions that are easily answered. One of those questions was a reiteration of a question asked and answered in a previous forum. “Is there an us against them culture at SPD?” The obvious answer is “There sure as hell is!” which Louge answered truthfully and MacConnell, with the proper qualifier, said that she hasn’t worked here so she doesn’t know for sure, but wouldn’t be the least bit surprised that there is given her experience and what is going on in Communities throughout the Country. Hopefully at some point both candidates will be subjected to some real hardball questions.

I did ask a question of Bart Louge regarding pulling public access to all of the IA Cases off of the SPD Website even though the UOFC and COPS/DOJ touted it.

https://examplepromeblog.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=3129&action=edit

https://examplepro.me/2016/02/29/what-is-the-big-secret/

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

https://examplepro.me/2016/03/26/furniture-gate-part-six-the-clean-up/

Bart Louge knew I already had the answer to my question from my Q & A with Meidl and Lundgren, but I asked the question to see if I could elicit from him some idea where the current SPD Leadership was headed with respect to transparency, and he did tip me off when he said he had looked at what Seattle does, and he was right, Seattle posts a short case synopsis with a link on how to get the entire file via a Public Records Request. So… look for it folks. What that means is that in all likelihood SPD will not be providing the public direct access to entire IA cases and if someone wants to read them and find out what is really there they will have to spend the time and money to do a PRR. That will cramp my style a bit but that’s okay, the problem is it will inhibit the average Citizen who wants the facts to go through the hassle of getting them.

My assessment, based on limited interaction is that either one would be a really good candidate, and both appear to be willing to dig in, learn, and call BS when necessary. Of course my opinion doesn’t matter it is up to the OPOC, but as you know I’m always willing to express my opinion… like it or not.

 

Good luck to both Candidates, and remember you can back out at any time! 🙂 🙂

I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!