Police officers are entrusted with life-and-death decisions. They carry weapons. They can intimidate, unwittingly or not. It’s a tough job with a lot of pressure.

Sometimes things go wrong. It’s human nature, and no police force is immune. How a city’s government holds its police force accountable is important to all citizens, but it’s especially important to the credibility of the police department.

Police unions and police departments are also powerful political forces that sometimes make it difficult to devise systems for oversight. Few politicians want to get on the wrong side of law enforcement. Few law enforcement entities volunteer for outside oversight.

That’s certainly true in Spokane, where the putative Citizens Review Commission has no staff or budget, has no subpoena power and cannot conduct investigations. Mayor Dennis Hession says the commission works fine. Fact is, it hardly works at all. The commission hasn’t met in years and has failed to file annual reports.

Whatever your beliefs on how police oversight should be conducted, it’s clear that this system is ineffective.

The chairman of the commission, the Rev. Lonnie Mitchell Sr. of Bethel AME Church, told The Spokesman-Review, “At first, we met once a month; now we meet ‘as needed.’ “

And who determines that need?

“When Roger Bragdon was chief, he took care of the complaints,” Mitchell said. “The complainants were satisfied – they didn’t come to us.”

A system where the police chief decides what cases are forwarded for review is fraught with obvious conflicts.

As for complainants being satisfied, how about the friends and family of Otto Zehm, who died after a struggle with police? How about critics of the two officers who allowed evidence on the firehouse sex case to be deleted from a digital camera?

Mitchell wouldn’t know, because he wasn’t given those cases. In fact, there is little incentive for people to complain when they know the ultimate disposition of cases rests with the police chief. Spokane is the only major city in the Northwest without direct civilian oversight of complaints against the police.

Boise’s oversight model is intriguing and has garnered national praise. That city has hired an ombudsman with a small staff and an annual budget to investigate complaints. It also reviews all deadly-use-of-force cases. The findings are made public.

Portland’s city auditor oversees a nine-member Citizen Review Committee. The auditor has an independent staff that conducts investigations.

Whatever the model, the keys are independence and transparency. The Spokane Police Department cannot build trust when it controls oversight, won’t divulge how cases are handled and won’t explain the reasoning behind decisions.

Spokane needs the type of professional oversight that other cities have moved toward. The fact that the department and the mayor don’t think so is worrisome. Hopefully, a new police chief can change minds and usher in an era of mutual trust.