(Continued from Part Four published April 7^th, 2016)

 

Officer Involved Deaths and Compelled Statements (Garrity).

You might find this interesting given the recent news stories concerning Mayor Condon NOT compelling statements from public employees in the City Council Investigation into the Cotton/Straub issue.

http://www.inlander.com/spokane/theyd-prefer-not-to/Content?oid=2742543

http://www.inlander.com/Bloglander/archives/2016/04/14/assistant-city-attorney-erin-jacobson-resigns-heres-the-messy-role-she-had-in-the-straub-investigation

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/apr/14/key-figure-in-police-chief-harassment-controversy-/

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/apr/13/42-employees-on-witness-list-in-spokane-city-hall-/

 

As I mentioned in a previous story both Meidl and Lundgren did state their interviews with Cappel were voluntary, which I found interesting.

To be clear, and I have responded to several inquiries regarding the question of the Mayor invoking Garrity, YES, HE CAN COMPEL ALL OF OUR PUBLIC EMPLOYEES TO TALK ANY TIME HE WANTS.

Seeing people walking out of public employment as Erin Jacobson has is not the least bit unusual. Once a public employee is no longer a public employee they cannot be compelled to talk under Garrity. They can of course be subpoenaed, however, they can easily stand on their Fifth Amendment Rights and not say one word…so all the public statements regarding wanting to be cooperative if subpoenaed, are just that “public statements”. It will be interesting to see what happens when and if it gets to subpoenas but I can’t imagine a lawyer NOT advising their client to take the Fifth. 

During the Q & A I brought up the findings of both COPS/DOJ and the Use of Force Commission recommendation that SPD conduct Parallel Investigations of Officer Involved Deaths. As you can see from the images below according to the COPS/DOJ Six-Month Assessment follow-up zero progress has been made by SPD.

 

Let me reiterate that whether DOJ does a Pattern and Practices Case against a Police Department or a Department agrees to using the Collaborative Reform Model the finding on the Garrity issue is almost always the same. The link below demonstrates the position of DOJ regarding Garrity and was part of their Patterns and Practice Case against the Seattle Police Department.

 

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/d65ff8b6-3edc-4738-b049-4fecccf9ab23

 

The Spokane Police Department is a long way from meeting the Garrity standards set forth above, and probably will be for a long time to come. Just one of the key elements in the letter above as far as Spokane PD is concerned is this:

 

 

Justin Lundgren in response to my questions among other things stated that because the Spokane County Prosecutors Office does not have an independent Public Integrity Section the Criminal Investigation could too easily become tainted (“tolling”) with information from the Parallel Administrative Investigation being leaked or used by Prosecutors doing the Criminal Investigation or Review.

 

I think Justin was a bit surprised when I agreed with him that SPD is NOT in a position to run a Parallel IA Investigation, but may have been a bit less surprised when I pointed out that besides the lack of independence in the Prosecutors Office there is no real independence in the SPD IA process and as a number of media stories have pointed out details of both Criminal and IA cases are passed around at SPD over and over again.

 

In reality it would take a complete change in the IA structure, as well as the structure of the OPO, and OPOC for the COPS/DOJ Recommendation to become a reality.

I should note that Justin and I did have a brief discussion regarding the way LAPD handles their OIS cases, which is entirely different from SPD and more along the lines of what DOJ wants.

Is it really necessary to have to get the OK from the Lieutenants and Captains Association and the Police Guild before moving ahead on this issue? In my view NO, but it would result in an Unfair Labor Practice Complaint because of the way the contracts were negotiated.

 

To sum things up, can Cops, or any other Public Employee be compelled to talk? YES, THEY CAN, or they can be terminated, or they can walk out the door as at least one individual has in the City Council’s Investigation.

 

The Mysterious Requests for Proposals has been solved.

A Public Records Request resulted in obtaining the RFP responses, so now even the City Council knows. As I mentioned before I was interested in the “Scope of Work” requested and I was not in the least bit surprised that the scope of work is limited to Patrol Division Staffing which eliminates the needed analysis done of the entire department including the Condon/Straub failed programs which are staffed with Patrol Officers who should be on the Street, as well as the Detective Division caseload productivity.

 

I was also NOT surprised at which company SPD chose to do the study. It may be just years of experience but when I see a former Cop who purports to be an “Expert” and only being in law enforcement for a short period of time, as well as not mentioning the Department they were with on their Website, I like to see if I can figure out why, and also review their work product. It is something we just don’t do here in Spokane the “City of Choice”.

This is the mom and pop Company SPD picked:

https://www.eticosolutions.com/index.php?lang=en

 

This is the “Expert”:

 

This is some background:

http://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=3018

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/6199c13d-f866-4d49-8b54-e596df3a7eed

http://www.rrstar.com/article/20160309/NEWS/160309480

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:NIYXrW1cJOUJ:caselaw.findlaw.com/us-7th-circuit/1689557.html+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

http://media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/rssExec.pl?Submit=Display&Path=Y2015/D01-13/C:14-1195:J:Williams:aut:T:fnOp:N:1484438:S:0

 

The following are links to all the RFP responses so you can decide:

 

 

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/45e2ede5-baf9-48e3-9bfc-885a67877b31

 

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/dcb2721c-e46d-440d-9a19-00236d49f5e0

 

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/461f5846-1f54-4106-a995-881b5a3ae15e

 

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/f650b7b3-45a7-4f69-b4cf-016394ae858b

 

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/e1fd33d2-9644-4718-9679-134f5db497f5

 

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/0c5256dc-91e9-42ee-805f-93a3628c2257

 

 

The weather in the newsroom hasn’t been great lately so this is a bit late, but the weather is improving.

 

 

I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!

 

 

 

(Continued from Part Three published April 5^th, 2016)

UPDATE: Still no word on the “Staffing Analysis” RFP/Contract. I did reach out via email to Craig Meidl requesting a copy and received this response:

______________________________

“Brian I’m not going to have time to respond to individual requests for reports and don’t want to start that habit.   If you submit a PRR, they will make sure this and any future requests are located and redacted as appropriate. Thanks, Craig”

______________________________

During our Q & A, Interim Chief Meidl, brought up the COPS/DOJ Collaborative Reform Process of the Las Vegas Metro PD early in the Q &A. I had intended to bring that process up since in my pre-journalism career I had to study it. When he opened the door I began to ask my questions, which included what I feel is very significant to the Spokane Community, and that is Recommendation 8.7 of the Spokane COPS/DOJ Report.

 

 

The highlighted area in the image above is a recommendation that SPD establish some kind of a “separate forum” to release the “facts” regarding a Deadly Force incident involving an SPD Cop.

That recommendation was predictable, at least to me, based on the COPS/DOJ Process with the LVMPD, which also was conducted by the consulting group CNA, so I asked how SPD was going to handle that recommendation, and I drew a comparison. Meidl said it had been a long time since he had read the LVMPD Report so I kind of filled him in.

 

 

COPS/DOJ LVMPD Link:

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/a0155272-5b61-41de-bb9e-41e625585371

 

 

 

According to the Spokane COPS/DOJ Six-month review this is where SPD stands regarding 8.7:

 

For folks that don’t know, or haven’t figured out yet, the COPS/DOJ COLLABORATIVE REFORM PROCESS is very similar to a situation where a CONSULTANT (CNA in this case) comes in, does a study, comes up with recommendations, and there is a period of back and forth where the two parties argue about what can and can’t be done. The final report usually ends up being a compromise in certain areas so it will ultimately be up to our City Leaders to decide what SPD does or doesn’t do.

I have said this several times but I will say it again. The results of SPD’s Deadly Force Review Board have only been made public on TWO occasions, in the Use of Force Commission Report and the COPS/DOJ Report. In both cases the reports were quite critical of SPD. If someone wanted to do a PRR to get them they could, or if it involves a civil litigation they are available through Discovery. Of course I’ve said a lot about this stuff before, as many know.

As an aside, during this portion of the Q & A Justin Lundgren and I had a short discussion of SPD’s use of Rifles when I pointed out that both the Use of Force Commission Report and the COPS/DOJ Report addressed the issue of Rifles.

Use of Force Commission Report:

 

COPS/DOJ Six Month Report:

 

 

 

It will be interesting to see how COPS/DOJ Recommendation 7.5 turns out.

 

Getting back to COPS/DOJ Recommendation 8.7 (Spokane) and the COPS/DOJ Recommendation in the LVMPD Report I want to note that in LVMPD Recommendation (8.1) they discuss “Coroners Inquests”, since that report Clark County NV ran into a lot of the problems we are seeing with the Spokane City Council’s current investigation. Cops refusing to testify, political intrigue, law enforcement lobbying, and the whole shooting match. I was invited by Liz Moore a short time ago to a Peace and Justice Action League (PJAL) meeting to talk about this topic, I’m not sure I got my point across so maybe this story will help.

 

This is what Clark County Nevada ended up with to make OIDs available to the Clark County NV Public, some folks might like the way they handle those type of cases others may not.

 

Clark County Today Public Release Link:

http://www.clarkcountynv.gov/countymanager/Pages/PoliceFatalityPublicFact.aspx

 

If you really are interested, you can go to the link below and watch some video of the OID/OIS Hearings in Clark County.

 

Police Fatality Public Fact-finding Reviews Link:

http://www.clarkcountynv.gov/public-communications/Pages/Agendas.aspx

 

What are the chances for something like the above happening in Spokane? I don’t know what the Vegas Odds are but I would say at this point…SLIM TO NONE!

 

One of the things I should note is that one of the big reasons for the involvement of COPS/DOJ with Las Vegas Metro was the intense media coverage of Metro’s problems.

 

Here is just a sample:

 

Las Vegas Review Journal: 

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/deadly-force/142-dead-and-rising/las-vegas-police-rank-high-shootings

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/deadly-force/broken-system-shattered-lives/inquests-undercut-prosecutorial-inaction-deference

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/officer-involved-shootings

 

More coming soon, I hope.

 

I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!!

(Continued from Part Two published April 4, 2016)

 

SPD STAFFING LEVEL AND THE COPS/DOJ REPORT

One of the things Interim Chief Meidl brought up in our Q & A was his position that SPD is understaffed. The minute he made that statement, my response was, “Wait a second you are fully staffed at 300 and that is the highest staffing level SPD has ever had.”.

To add perspective, for folks that don’t know, there are now two fairly distinct factions within SPD. One faction believes that Straub’s various “Programs and Models” were for the most part “failures” resulting in “inefficient resource allocation”, “duplication of efforts”, “wasted time”, and “unnecessary overtime”.

 

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/b22f5fb9-87e6-4db2-a1ce-f0d0f35a5467

 

The other faction I’m told consists of those individuals who want to continue the Mayor’s and Straub’s failed programs regardless of whether or not they are good for SPD or the City of Spokane. Meidl’s comment about being understaffed confirmed for me what faction he belongs to, along with Dobrow and Schwering. Many believe, myself included, that “Furniture-gate” was a result of the chasm that exists at SPD.

 

 

Meidl’s comment about an understaffed SPD lead to a discussion of Recommendation 10.5 made by COPS/DOJ.

The folks that follow me know that I have been harping on getting a staffing analysis done for years. Below is a link to some of my stories:

https://examplepro.me/2015/10/24/the-headline-reads-spokane-police-department-fully-staffed-what-does-that-mean-to-us/

https://examplepro.me/2015/10/27/are-you-being-served/

https://examplepro.me/2015/11/09/allow-me-to-repeat-this-because-it-is-important/

 

The Q & A revealed some interesting facts regarding Recommendation 10.5. SPD apparently did finally put out a RFP and have chosen a company to do the “Staffing Analysis”. But I have also learned that not all of the City Council, if any, are aware of this. What I thought was interesting was that Justin somewhat reluctantly told us that one of the consulting groups that responded to the RFP was none other than the Matrix Group who did a similar Staffing Analysis of SPD back in 2007. The Analysis done by Matrix was very critical of SPD. I might add that I have on many, many occasions referred to the Matrix Study. So it will be interesting to see what the new consultant will come up with.

Lundgren stated that the Staffing Analysis will take approximately six months to complete. Supposedly we will have a new Chief of Police by that time…so it could become interesting.

 

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/5368b37a-7519-4cfb-9dfc-dfcafd0db94c

 

The discussion regarding the Staffing Analysis allowed me to segue into areas I think are important from a Citizen’s standpoint. CompStat and “Intelligence Based Policing” came up of course. Most folks know my position on the automated pin map, and the sales job accompanying it. But according to both Meidl and Lundgren SPD is at least considering bringing back the Accountability Information Management System, which we Citizens purchased, and Straub did away with. I feel that AIM was a far better tool for assessing how SPD is doing than CompStat ever was, because of the overall detail it provides. There are all kinds of accountability software available which can be tweaked to meet any Department’s needs.

 

Carly Cortright used to be responsible for the AIM Product and its dissemination to the Public. We all know PART of the Carly Cortright story and why she was transferred out of SPD. That by the way, was a big loss to SPD and just the tip of the iceberg regarding the “DFWF” (You can figure out what DFWF means.) issue.

I don’t know how many times I have been over this, but maybe now the new Public Safety Committee will finally take notice, so I’ll repeat some of it.

 

The links below are a copy of the last publicly available AIM data and the press release:

https://my.spokanecity.org/police/news/2009/10/28/spds-accountability-information-report-now-available-online/

 

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/0fcced43-3f2a-4a64-9817-fbf0cda00fec

 

 

Given all the recent news stories about property crimes, auto theft, and SPD not investigating property crimes, there are a few things I would like to point out from the 2012 AIM Data, and also mention that even though we don’t have any current data to support it, sources indicate not much has changed.

 

Starting with the Targeted Crimes Unit, which by the way Rachel learned from Meidl is responsible for investigating the art stolen in this story she wrote.

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/mar/28/painting-stolen-off-wall-from-downtown-spokane-bar/

 

I don’t know what the staffing level was for the SPD TCU in 2012 or today, but I do know that in June of 2015, it was (7) Cops. As you can see from the image above in 2012 for the whole year TCU had an incoming “Case Flow” of (479) cases. Of those (479) cases only (109) were assigned for investigation. If the unit in 2012 consisted of just (4) Cops the monthly case load per Cop would have been (2.25) cases per month. If that had been my caseload back in the day I would have really been bored.

 

When you look at the Property Crimes, Fraud, and DV Unit you see a 2012 Case Flow of (700) cases, with only (313) being assigned for investigation. I should first point out that these three Units should have been separated to get an accurate Case Management Analysis…but they weren’t so we have to go with what we have. I don’t know exactly what the staffing level was for the three units in 2012 but I believe it was around (7) Cops total, which works out to a monthly caseload of (4) cases per month.

You might wonder why I went through the exercise above again…well it has to do with a response by Craig Meidl to a question I asked about the low caseload at SPD. Meidl told me that the reason the caseloads were so low is because it is a lot harder to investigate property crimes today than it was when I was a Cop because investigators had to spend more time searching data from places like Facebook, Twitter, Craigslist, and Pawn Records. I thought that was kind of strange in that I would think that all the social media, and data bases would actually make it an easier “gumshoe”, or maybe even no shoe at all.

 

I also wanted to point out what the Matrix Report stated, and for those that don’t care to read the entire Matrix Report, here is what it said about Property Crimes Caseloads.

 

I don’t know exactly what Case Management System SPD utilizes today but I do know that back in the day SPD sent some of us all over the place to develop a Case Management System that a lot of other Departments copied. It is hard to tell from the information available where SPD’s “Choke Point” is, but it looks like it is at the Unit Supervisory Level, which in my view isn’t good for a number of reasons. A “Choke Point” by the way, is the point at which a Department’s entire Report/Case Flow is “Choked” to a manageable number of cases to be assigned for follow-up. Generally, all cases with a “Solvability Factor” had to be assigned by Supervisors back in the day, if they didn’t they had a lot of explaining to do.

 

Another thing the AIM Data provided the Public was at least some idea of how much money, cars, and guns SPD was seizing.

One other thing I wanted to show you, is a “Product” Carly Cortright provide to me when I was doing a volunteer thing with “The Retention Project”. The data she gave me was derived from her AIM Database. You can probably figure out for yourself why I wanted the data and what I did with it. It would be nice to see more “Products” like this from SPD.

 

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/a94e3f54-81c9-4df8-92dd-96b08ae707da

 

I hope this was informative and some of the things I have mentioned in here should be covered by the folks doing the Staffing Analysis, which should also include the Patrol Division, as well as all the other Divisions at SPD, however many that is now.

 

More to come!

 

I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!

 

(Continued from Part One published April 3, 2016)

 

SPD’S CRIMINAL INTELLIGENCE UNIT

 

BACKGROUND:

The first Spokane Police Department “Intelligence Unit” was established in 1973 prior to EXPO 74 in anticipation of the influx of Organized Crime Activity in Spokane as a result of the upcoming World’s Fair. The Intelligence Unit was to be setup in what was then the Administrative Vice Intelligence and Narcotics Unit. The ADVIN Unit reported directly to the Chief of Police which was standard throughout the US because of the high possibility of corruption in areas of Intelligence, Vice, and Narcotics. That ADVIN Unit was not without problems and there were several media stories regarding those problems which included an undercover Drug Cop getting hooked on crack, the Unit Commander becoming involved with a former Mafia Associate in business dealings, and the case that resulted in the Gypsy Curse, to name a few.

The term “Intelligence Unit” back then was a bit of a misnomer in that there really wasn’t a “Unit” per say. The staffing level was one Detective who had just passed the Detective’s exam and was chosen out of several other candidates to set up and run the “Unit”. Many people would also probably suggest that because of the Detective chosen the term “Intelligence” was also a misnomer. Yes, as you might have guessed…it was me. SPD sent me all over the place for training and to work with other “Intelligence Units” so I could setup SPD’s. Part of my duties was to establish strict policy regarding the handling of Intelligence Information as many other Intelligence Units throughout the US had been caught gathering and maintaining illegal intelligence files. Close to home was Seattle PD and here are a couple of old media reports that will give you some idea of what was going on in some departments.

 

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19790116&id=0fJVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BuIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5615,4251566&hl=en

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=860&dat=19780816&id=zIRUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MI8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=5245,2843283&hl=en

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19800210&id=ngokAAAAIBAJ&sjid=IQgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3562,5201924&hl=en

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=860&dat=19740418&id=u39UAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FY8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7172,1094644&hl=en

 

 

In 1978, I transferred out of the ADVIN/Intelligence Unit to become a Homicide Detective something I always wanted. In the mid-80s my Division Captain, a good guy, and one of those former Marine types, sent me back into the ADVIN to try and clean up one of the messes that had developed there that assignment also included auditing the Intel Files. That Captain is also one of the retired SPD cops that reads my stories and knows what is currently going on at SPD. So he will probably get a kick out of this one. I still haven’t had an opportunity to give him crap about some of the rotten jobs he stuck me with…so consider it done Captain! 🙂  Of course he wasn’t the only Captain to assign me rotten jobs…another retired SPD Captain (Army Korean War Vet) who reads my stories did as well.

During my Post-SPD career I have had several cases involving Intelligence Information and Files at both the Federal and State level, so I have had to keep current on the issue.

You might wonder what all of this “Background” has to do with our Q & A with Meidl and Lundgren…it has to do with my BS Meter, and what may or may not set it off.

 

I should also note that a long time prior to the Q & A I recommended to some City Council Members that they consider passing a City Ordinance similar to the one Seattle passed after Seattle’s Intelligence Unit was exposed. The recommendation was made because of some information I had received about local law enforcement’s collection and retention of Intelligence Information. I never heard back but maybe when they read this story they will give it more thought.

 

THE Q & A AND CIU:

During the Q & A I asked Interim Chief Meidl the staffing level of SPD’s Criminal Intelligence Unit. It was a tough question for him and he didn’t seem to know for sure, Justin Lundgren helped him out to an extent and we ended up with that SPD’s CIU now consists of one Supervisor who also Supervises the Narcotics Unit and one Detective who is assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force. When I asked where SPD maintains their Intelligence Files, Lundgren joked as to why I wanted to know and whether or not I was planning on burglarizing SPD. My joking response was, that I didn’t need to because I had enough bugs and wiretaps going, Meidl jokingly responded “We found them all!”. As you can see it was a pretty congenial Q & A. I then asked if the single CIU position was federally funded and was told that it isn’t.

 

I asked if either of them knew whether or not SPD CIU maintained automated and hard copy files of Intel Files and who audited those files. Lundgren said that IA used to audit the Intelligence files but they hadn’t done it in years, and neither Meidl or Lundgren knew if anyone is auditing today, although Meidl did say that because the SPD Cop is assigned to the Federal Joint Terrorism Task Force the files are the Fed’s Files and not SPD’s. Those answers didn’t work too well for me so I asked if they were aware that they had an agreement with the County to give all of SPD’s automated files to the Spokane County Sherriff, I got a strange look from both and they indicated they didn’t know…but I sure did.

 

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/914660bb-6e83-4d35-b681-43294c7f93d3

 

Needless to say the Ole BS Meter started to tick, but Meidl explained his not knowing by using the drinking through a firehose analogy. In other words, he has been inundated with a whole bunch of stuff in his new job as Interim Chief of Police, which could very well be true, but it is something that needs addressed…and soon.

 

What was troubling to me, because of some of the answers given by Meidl and Lundgren, was that I have in my possession of a copy of this SPD document which was prepared on June 25^th, 2015 showing how SPD CIU was staffed on that date.

 

The staffing document shown above is quite scary to me for a number of reasons, I won’t get into all of them but here are a few and perhaps you can figure out why I find it scary.

1) SPD Cop, James Collins, is shown as assigned to the JTTF but his contact information is listed as Mark Sterk’s from Spokane Public Schools…the only thing I can say at this point is…” Wow!”.

 

2) Mark Dean, from the US Border Patrol is listed as a part of SPD’s CIU…remember the all the hoopla about the relationship between SPD and the Border Patrol?

 

3) SPD Cop, Jeff Harvey, who apparently works “(Pawns)” is/was in SPD’s CIU…kind of interesting to me.

 

4) SPD Cop, Harlan Harden, who apparently works “(Human Trafficking)” is/was in SPD’s CIU…could be dangerous depending upon what intel is collected and retained.

 

Even more interesting, to me anyway, is the CIU Analytical Section, which is/was made up of Craig Brenden who is a former SPD Cop, and was at one time working for the City as a Code Enforcement Officer, Thomas Wickesser from the National Guard (I think he is paid by the Guard…but I’m not sure), and SPD Sr Crime and Intelligence Analyst Tom Michaud.

 

Obviously if SPD’s CIU has an analytical section there must be data and reports to analyze…the question is what are they and do they conform to LEIU Standards and all the Federal Stuff.

 

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/f028625f-bbff-4af6-8cda-15bb55513087

http://www.leiu-homepage.org/about

https://www.iir.com/28CFR_Program/28CFR_FAQ

https://www.iir.com/28CFR_Program/28CFR_Resources/Executive_Order/

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/7b06323b-0043-4b37-961f-de7f0aecb0e6

 

 

As fate would have it, although I had a copy of SPD’s CIU Staffing Document in my brief case, and was going to show it to Meidl and Lundgren, then ask a number of questions I had…TIME RAN OUT and I wasn’t able to. From the answers I did receive from Meidl and Lundgren regarding auditing of SPD Intel Files it seems, among other things, SPD is no longer a member of LEIU.

 

If Interim Chief Meidl remains true to his word I will have another opportunity for a Q & A where I will be able to ask more questions, if not, as some are speculating, then other people had better get off their butts.

 

One thing that did happen during the CIU discussion was when I remarked that Intel Files were a matter of public record. Justin looked at me kind of funny and said “Intelligence Files”, I knew what he was thinking, the Washington State Public Records Act Exempts Intelligence Files, but as is true for any record even though it might take a court action. I think when Justin reads this story he will know where I was coming from.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/08/nyregion/new-york-to-appoint-monitor-to-review-polices-counterterrorism-activity.html?_r=0

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/639c450ac2144dd39b849e4282e824d1/nyc-settles-lawsuits-over-muslim-surveillance-police

http://digital.lib.washington.edu/findingaids/view?docId=AmericanCivilLibertiesUnionofWashington1177.xml

http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=1206&issue_id=62007

 

I still haven’t received a response from some folks yet, maybe today since it is a working day. If and when I get a response I will have more.

 

As a lead in to my next story we got some real interesting info regarding this COPS/DOJ Recommendation and where it stands today.

 

 

I thought the information was interesting anyway. I know Rachel took note of some of it and will probably update the SR website when she gets a chance, but my approach might be a little different so stay tuned.

 

I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!