New City Could Contract With Sheriff For Services

If voters choose next month to form a city in the Spokane Valley, residents of the new city would no longer fall under the jurisdiction of the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department.

However, the Sheriff’s Department would likely continue providing public safety services through a contract with the new city.

Already, the department spends 50 to 60 percent of its resources on the Valley area, said Sheriff John Goldman.

Howard Herman, attorney for the Citizens for Valley Incorporation, said, “The proponents of Valley incorporation fully intend that the new city would contract with Sheriff’s Department for police protection.”

And the group and the sheriff are looking westward for inspiration.

Federal Way, Wash., incorporated in 1990 and contracts with the King County Sheriff’s Department. That city’s population is close to what a city of the Spokane Valley would be: about 73,000.

For $9 million, King County provides officers and services for the city’s precinct.

The Federal Way police chief, Maj. Bob Evans might joke about “the unique opportunity to work for two bureaucracies,” but he said “it’s worked out well for both sides.”

“It works because (the city) had trained, experienced officers ready to go to work that were already here,” he said.

Spokane Sheriff Goldman said that a contract with the new city would probably cost about $9 million, also. “The relationship is very similar to what we’d anticipate here.”

In addition to a main office in the new city, Goldman said he would add officers to the Sheriff Community Oriented Policing Effort stations throughout the Valley.

Instead of one large office, having several smaller ones would develop the trend toward community policing efforts. Goldman said that people seem to want “government that is more responsive to their individual needs.”

“The officers work in the area, get to know the people, there’s a mechanism in place for the exchange of information,” Goldman said.

Still, some would remain in Spokane. Specialized workers such as the SWAT team, and hazardous materials team would not be relocated, he said.

Under a contract relationship, the officers working for the city would probably try to identify with the community like King County did with Federal Way, Goldman said.

“The issue of local identity was a big one,” Evans said. Sheriff’s deputies wear county uniforms, but their nametags also say, “City of Federal Way.” Patrol cars used in the city are marked differently than other county vehicles.

Evans said that one drawback to contracting with the county is that the city council might have less control than they would over a private police department.

Federal Way’s alternatives to contracting with King County include forming its own police department or entering into an agreement with other smaller cities to form a tri-city police department.

A city in the Spokane Valley could also form its own police department.

The Spokane Police Department has an average of 1.7 officers per 1,000 in its service area, Goldman said. The sheriff’s office has about 0.8 - less than half.

A city in the Valley would probably want to increase that ratio. And the sheriff’s department would probably go through an aggressive hiring cycle, Goldman said. A more appropriate number of officers to residents might be around 1 to 1,000.

But even if the Valley does not incorporate, Goldman hopes to bolster the area’s SCOPE substations. “One of my goals is to decentralize,” he said.