Valley police chief to run for county sheriff

Spokane Valley’s police chief announced his candidacy for Spokane County sheriff on Friday.

Cal Walker will run in the next election, which starts with the September 2006 primary and ends with the general election in November 2006.

“It’s a humbling … invigorating experience” to be on this side of a campaign, Walker said during a press conference at the Davenport Hotel.

Walker filed his petition to run for office with the Public Disclosure Commission on Sept. 30.

Walker, a Republican, is the only person so far to announce his candidacy. He can’t file with the county election’s office until the last week in July.

Sheriff Mark Sterk introduced Walker on Friday and endorsed his candidacy. “He’ll do a great job of keeping up the momentum we’ve gained over the years,” Sterk said.

Sterk announced earlier this year that he’ll leave his post on March 31 to pursue work with the Nazarene Church. His term would have ended in December 2006.

During the Aug. 26 announcement, he voiced hopes that Walker would be the next sheriff.

Walker said in addition to running for election in November he’s “chasing the appointment” after Sterk leaves. He hopes to be one of the three appointees forwarded to county commissioners by Republican Party precinct committee officers to fill the remainder of the sheriff’s term.

Walker, 49, started work with the sheriff’s office in 1988. The Spokane native has worked as a patrol officer, detective, supervising sergeant and captain. He’s been the Spokane Valley police chief for 2½ years.

Walker is well known for his role as a supervisor of the task force that solved the case of serial killer Robert Lee Yates Jr. Yates was convicted of killing 15 women.

Walker outlined three main goals: holding criminals accountable, interagency communication and citizens’ ability to report crimes.

“People aren’t being held accountable for certain crimes. If we don’t fix that, crooks will thumb their nose at us,” Walker said. “There’s a certain criminal element that will figure out which crimes they will do time for and which ones they won’t.”

The communication system allowing firefighters, police and emergency medical services to talk to each other during major disasters is inefficient, Walker said.

The decreased hours in Spokane County’s crime reporting system has been a sore spot for Walker since budget cuts demanded hours be shortened. Crime Check has suffered a great loss in particular and is now not staffed weekday nights or weekends.

“People don’t have anyone to call,” Walker said. “We haven’t filled the gap. We have to come up with an alternative.”