Hey, chief! Can you help me out here?

It’s comforting to know that no matter how big and sophisticated my hometown gets, Spokane is still a place with traditional small-town values.

Traditional values like:

Chatting with your neighbor, helping an old lady cross the street, rescuing a kitten out of a tree …

Getting the police chief to fix a traffic ticket.

Some of the newcomers who migrated here from more uncaring metropolises may be unaware that our police department is headed by such a hands-on, Andy of Mayberry kind of cop.

But it’s true. Ask Don Brockett.

Bothered by the traffic infraction his son-in-law received last June, Brockett dialed up Chief Roger Bragdon.

Chief Roger has plenty to do, what with busting indoor pot farms and trailer park meth labs and not getting that college diploma he said he’d get back when he took the job.

Despite the busy schedule, however, Chief Roger still had enough time to personally scratch the back of a good citizen in need.

Because three weeks after chatting with Brockett, Chief Roger made that infraction disappear like Jimmy Hoffa.

This entire matter probably would have vanished, too, if the Spokane Police Guild hadn’t climbed on its high horse.

Obviously troubled by the chief’s intercession, the guild voted unanimously last week to file a formal complaint about it.

The fascinating facts were outlined last Saturday in The Spokesman-Review.

The guild is asking Mayor Jim West’s office to decide whether Chief Roger’s conduct was improper.

Well, I vote that Mayor Jim gets out his political paint bucket and whitewash this blatant act of Police Guild insubordination.

Oh, sure, it may feel good to say that we live in a town where there’s no such thing as favoritism.

Until some traffic cop writes you a ticket, that is.

When that happens I want some wriggle room.

I don’t want to go through the system. I don’t want to pay any fines.

I want to know that Chief Roger is a phone call away.

Some cynics may snipe that Chief Roger involved himself in this only because Brockett was the Spokane County prosecutor from 1969 to 1994.

It was Brockett’s son-in-law who got the ticket, after all. Why didn’t he call the chief?

Let’s not butt into Brockett family dynamics. I just can’t believe that a veteran law enforcement officer like Chief Roger would be dumb enough to only give preferential treatment to the big shot members of the community.

Hey, we little shots want preferential treatment, too.

“Roger wasn’t doing something for me,” said Brockett in reporter Thomas Clouse’s story. “I was talking to him as a professional. I wouldn’t have expected him to deal with me differently than anybody else. And he didn’t.”

That’s good enough for me, Don.

From what you are saying, the chief is open and available to all.

“Bragdon did not return phone calls seeking comment Thursday and Friday,” added the story.

OK, maybe not quite all.

I won’t bore you by repeating all the niggling details that led to the ticketing of Brockett’s son-in-law.

It happened following a three-car fender bender that occurred on the North Side. The son-in-law was cited for having defective taillights.

That’s darned encouraging if you ask me.

I mean, if our chief of police will stick his nose into some nickel/dime taillight beef, think how quickly he’ll help out the driver who, say, rear-ends a fruit stand.

In fact, anyone who has received any dubious infractions in the last month or so should call the Roger the Ticket Dodger Hotline at (509) 625-4050.

Make sure you tell him you’re not a member of the press.

Unless you’re fond of strip-searches and handcuffs.