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September 7, 2009 in City
Spokane’s police ombudsman ready to listen, earn trust
Tim Burns is adjusting to his role as Spokane’s new police ombudsman.
(Full-size photo)
Spokane’s first police ombudsman, Tim Burns, started work late last month, nearly a year after the City Council created the position amid public outcry over police conduct. Burns, 55, moved to Spokane from Visalia, Calif., where he enforced codes as a neighborhood preservation manager. He also spent 22 years as a police officer in Los Gatos, Calif. For now, he’s working out of a temporary office in Spokane City Hall, but he plans to set up office space at community centers around the city. He discussed his plans in an interview last week.
Q.What are you doing to get started?
A.I’ve started to review a lot of the policies and practices that the police have. A lot of what I suspect I’ll be doing is being an active listener. I’m looking to reach out to people who feel they may not have been heard in the past. I need to be in tune with what their perception of what my role is while maintaining a level of impartiality. To be independent is critical. I need to be outside the traditional boundaries of city government so I can help foster that sense of independence.
Q.You won’t be doing your own investigations but you’ll be participating in internal investigations. How will you prepare?
A.Doing the interviews will be the easy part. To do the review will be the more technical part. To make sure all of the components of a thorough investigation are complete. It can never be just business as usual. You have to be very cautious and wary. What I do or don’t do can have a direct impact on someone’s life.
Q.What are your first impressions of the city?
A.The downtown is a magnet for people. It’s just a hub of activity. If you can fall in love with a downtown in a city, everything gets better after that.
Q.How will you get to know the city?
A.I’m going to sit in on council meetings and reach out to the different nonprofits. I’ve got a bus pass, so one of the things I’ll do in my spare time is start riding the buses to see what’s out there. In a lot of cases, I just would like to be a fly on the wall, to be privy to the daily conversation to get to know the city.
Q.What are you looking forward to?
A.I’ll be happy when we get to the point where I understand my role in the community, where I’ve earned the community’s trust and I can focus on not only those items but the issues brought to the ombudsman. I’m a little concerned that there had been some comments made that the community was uneasy about the lack of investigative oversight. I hope to look at that during annual reviews, when we have enough time to see whether the tools we have already are effective, which I’m hopeful they are. But I’m hoping the council will be open to hearing more suggestions.
Q.Any final words?
A.I hope the community will give me the opportunity and the program the opportunity to prove itself. I’m just looking forward to moving forward. You can’t undo a mistake that was made, but if you can learn from what was done, then I think that’s huge.
Human trafficking suspects released 
lewis8457 on September 07 at 2:21 p.m.
Good luck to our new ombudsman i hope he can do his job with bringing accountability to the police here in spokane.
spokanada on September 07 at 4:06 p.m.
Welcome to Spokane. You may have the toughest job in town.
Sadbuttrue on September 07 at 8:34 p.m.
Sigh. To have any credibility with this tough crowd of disillusioned, savagely-beaten, killed, maimed defraud and lied-to citizenry, this guy would have to smack down HARD on the cops, and do it very publicly.
That will not happen.
Therefore, this poor guy has zero credibility and it all goes downhill very fast after that.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on September 08 at 5:45 a.m.
When you have the good fortune to actually Meet Mr Burns.. and spend time in his space your perceptions of him will likely be very very positive… his open countenance and accepting manner bely the “hard core” center that exists in his heart… It may seem an impossible job… but the main tool he will have is free media access for a time, and over time as things are gently pushed back in a nonviolent manner a la Dr King… the sea change that is coming to Spokane will slowly wash the City Police Department and the County Prosecutor’s department clean with a fresh salty smell.
If he “teams” with the Center for Justice and the Peace and Justice Action League, and Church based, and community based advocacy groups we will turn the tide of Police abuse and brutal treatment to our “Community of Other” here in Spokane… the list of folks impacted by the past 8 years of unconstitutional police actions across this nation is very large and there will be case law soon to base further charges and actions upon. John
Sadbuttrue on September 08 at 10:29 a.m.
The guy should immediately and vigorously lobby the US Attorney’s Office to indict about 30 of the worst offenders on Felony civil rights violations.
A line of 30 bad cops being led away in handcuffs would fix a lot of the current problems.
That would have a bracing moral effect on the rest of them to start policing themselves and their fellow co-conspirators in the blue line.