Doug Clark: Spokane police chief the Real Freakin’ Deal

Hi, gang. Today I’m going to say some kind words about a public servant.

I know. I’m not the go-to guy when it comes to gushing on about the virtues of our public servants.

There’s a reason.

Many of them aren’t worth a thimbleful of camel drool.

But every solar eclipse or so, a public servant with an actual spine comes along.

Spokane Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick, to be specific.

I’ll be honest. In the summer of 2006, when she was in the hunt to command our (mostly) boys in blue, I didn’t take her too seriously.

The department was averaging, oh, about a scandal every six hours back then. I figured we needed some gruff, burly hard-ass with a crew cut to turn things around.

Kirkpatrick is a pint-size woman. She has a Southern drawl and welcoming persona. Just listening to her talk makes me want to sit down and eat a cookie.

Plus she has these “too good to be true” ideals. Her five “cardinal rules,” she calls them.

They include expectations like no sex on duty, no insubordination, no lying …

It’s all so unbelievably quaint.

Then she landed the job. The troops are gonna eat her lunch, I figured.

At her swearing-in ceremony I got my first inkling that the new boss of the SPD was the RFD.

Real Freakin’ Deal.

Kirkpatrick took her oath. No pompous speechifying. She spent two minutes promising to protect and to serve.

Here’s what I wrote about it:

“The city’s first female police chief can’t be more than a few whiskers over 5 feet tall. Yet sometimes the most powerful hurricanes rise out of the smallest storms.”

Sixteen months later, I have clarified my position. Hurricane Anne is becoming the best police chief Spokane has ever had.

Under her watch, the department is less paranoid and more professional. She has delivered on a vow to make the SPD more accessible and transparent.

And what of those sacred standards of conduct she brought with her?

They are very much in play, as Officer Jason Uberuaga has discovered.

Oops. Make that ex-Officer Uberuaga.

Kirkpatrick fired the man, effective Wednesday, for conduct unbecoming.

The “unbecoming” stuff took place last October. Uberuaga used his police-issued cell phone to snap photos of a woman baring her breasts. Then he had sex with her in a Spokane Valley tavern parking lot.

And they say romance is dead.

That Uberuaga, a 10-year veteran, was off-duty during the sex-capades didn’t excuse him in Kirkpatrick’s eyes.

The chief, according to our news story, believes Uberuaga broke departmental policies that include “drinking alcohol while using a police vehicle.”

(Although the woman initially claimed she was assaulted, the officer was investigated and cleared of any criminal wrongdoing.)

Uberuaga should have known the score. Kirkpatrick has made sure every cop including the K-9 dogs are aware of the cardinal rules.

Under prior police administrations, Uberuaga’s dalliance probably would have produced a different result.

A letter of reprimand, perhaps. A few days off, maybe. High-fives and knowing winks from cowboy cops, certainly.

But Kirkpatrick rules the roost now. So down went the hammer.

That won’t be the end. The axed officer, as the story indicated, intends to fight the chief’s decision via a civilian arbitrator.

Makes sense. Consider the bizarre case of Joseph “Cuppa Joe” Mastel.

Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich sacked Mastel after the detective exposed himself to an Airway Heights barista. Then, in one of the weirdest decisions on record, a county Civil Service Commission reversed the sheriff.

A jury of glue-sniffers would have been more clear-headed.

Granted, Cuppa Joe’s offense is more egregious than what Uberuaga did. But the behavior of both men is a far cry from what taxpayers should expect out of their law enforcers – on or off duty.

Will we see another disgraced cop avoid the chopping block?

Anything can happen. But even should Uberuaga win his appeal, I know this: Anne Kirkpatrick won’t be deterred from her goal to make the Spokane Police Department an organization we can all be proud of.