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Editorial: Police Guild, city need to reach compromise
The city of Spokane needs more police officers.
A Sunday report in The Spokesman-Review, with supporting graphics, made a convincing case that the force’s 275 uniformed officers are overwhelmed by property crimes, notably auto theft. The property crime rate in Spokane per thousand residents is 87, compared with 64 for Tacoma, next highest among the largest Washington cities.
Wednesday, the NW Insurance Council released statistics ranking Spokane ninth in the nation for auto theft. All the other top 10 cities except Yakima, at fourth, are in California.
At 72 crimes per officer, Spokane outdistances other Washington cities by a wide margin.
Mayor David Condon has made a commitment to hire an additional 25 officers to spread the load and allow Police Chief Frank Straub to execute a plan to divide the city into three precincts that would integrate officers more intimately into the territory they patrol. Straub seems to be rebuilding morale within the force and not shying from the task at hand.
The city can rally to a leader who says, “As the police chief, I believe I own the crime problem in this city.”
But higher morale or not, the city and the Police Guild that represents officers remain deadlocked in negotiations begun back in 2011. Both sides have been close-mouthed, so what issues might be blocking a resolution are unknown. Besides pay and benefits, more oversight by the ombudsman’s office could be on the table as well as the use of body cameras, which would help prevent speculation about what happens in an encounter between officers and suspects.
Any agreement that calls for more money will be a problem. The city has cut positions and eliminated services repeatedly in recent years. The most recent contract with the firefighters continued a pattern that has increased pay but removed, for example, fire trucks from Station No. 9 on the South Hill.
The city cannot let that contract be a model for an agreement with the guild, which has no incentive to settle as long as the prior contract remains in place, and the pressure for more officers increases with the crime rate. Condon says he is willing to ask for a tax increase, but acknowledges that will be a tough sell without a deal in hand.
The alternative, binding arbitration, will almost certainly be a losing proposition for the city. No arbitrator is going to cut pay. They habitually ignore the difference between police or fire compensation and the much lower earnings of the great majority of their employers; the taxpayers. This ought to be fixed.
Spokane County sheriff’s deputies will have their demand for a pay increase of between 2 percent and 5 percent heard by an arbitrator in November. Meanwhile, Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich has lost more than 30 officers in three years.
Officers, city and county, are constantly under pressure, and exposed to violence, in the performance of their duties. Part of the solution is more officers.
Simply put, the city and the guild have to agree on what each will give up to get those 25 more officers. Both sides win. Crime loses.