Overdue oversight
In a recent comment, Spokane Mayor Mary Verner worried that a police ombudsman might become like the Maytag repairman. That is, the office would have little to do.
The public ought to be worried that the simile is a reflection on the city’s private negotiations with police unions, which by state law are able to bargain the parameters of oversight.
A neutered ombudsman would demonstrate that the union doesn’t welcome credible oversight. Given the Otto Zehm case and other recent controversies, that would be a public-relations hit the Police Department can ill afford. Unfortunately, history shows that police are prone to handcuffing independent reviews.
A 1992 poll showed that two-thirds of citizens wanted independent reviews of alleged police misconduct. Based on that, an 11-member Citizens Review Panel was formed. Mayor Shari Barnard was for it. Chief Terry Mangan was against it, and blocked many complaints. He also chose four of the panel’s members, which formed a reliable bloc that stymied reviews. The short-lived panel was disbanded after police unions filed an unfair labor practice complaint.
In 1995, the Citizens Review Commission was formed after negotiations with police. That’s the panel that was recently mothballed after going 10 years without hearing a case. It had no subpoena power, no staff and no budget, and it did not issue public reports. When it did vote that a police officer used excessive force in a 1997 case, the Spokane Police Guild filed another unfair labor practice claim, which effectively ended the case.
An ombudsman’s office can be as busy as a city wants it to be. Boise’s office, which is heralded as a model for oversight, has three full-time staffers and fourth who is on call for investigations. They don’t sit around waiting for things to break down.
Along with reviewing cases involving deadly force, they audit internal affairs investigations, recommend policy and training changes, issue officer commendations and write public reports about police performance. The office also serves as a relief valve for citizens’ complaints.
Sometimes people just want to blow off steam. It helps to have an independent agency that can explain why police operate the way they do. The educational aspect of the office can prevent misunderstandings from turning into formal complaints.
The Boise office has an annual budget of $260,000. The budget for the Spokane office was set at $200,000, but the mayor recently noted that there might be a cheaper way. That’s true only if oversight itself is minimized.
And as Breean Beggs, of the Center for Justice, pointed out, the office can pay for itself by preventing just one expensive legal settlement a year.
The mayor, with the backing of the police chief, is on record as supporting credible police oversight. She can’t back down now.