Police ombudsman proposed

A Seattle consultant hired by Spokane Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick is recommending a paid city ombudsman to replace Spokane’s faltering, citizen volunteer-based police oversight panel.

That’s in keeping with national police oversight trends tracked by consultant Sam Pailca, a Seattle lawyer and the former civilian director of Seattle’s police oversight office, Kirkpatrick said in an interview on Friday.

“The trend is now going to a one-person model rather than a panel. That’s her recommendation,” Kirkpatrick said. Pailca’s full report, which Kirkpatrick was starting to review on Friday, will be made public next week, the police chief said.

If the recommendation is implemented by the city, Spokane could end up with a system similar to Boise, where the police ombudsman has a staff of three and a $269,000 budget. The ombudsman’s office was created after a series of officer-involved shootings in the late 1990s.

Boise Ombudsman Pierce Murphy works for the Boise City Council. He investigates complaints about the city’s 300 law enforcement officers, reviews any use of “deadly force” by officers and audits all internal affairs investigations, which are still conducted by the Police Department. The results are made public.

Since 1995, Spokane has had an all-volunteer Citizens Review Commission. But it has rarely met, and its powers to review police misconduct are severely restricted by the City Charter. Members have no budget, no legal protection from police lawsuits and can rule only whether the Police Department’s review of a citizen complaint was “thorough and objective.” Critics have said the commission was set up to fail – its powers neutered by a hostile Police Department when it was first established.

Last October, the commission tossed out the first case of police misconduct referred to it in a decade, a citizen’s complaint about the conduct of off-duty police Lt. Judi Carl during a late-night neighborhood altercation involving two of her children.

After two closed-door sessions, the commission decided it couldn’t act because Carl had already been disciplined with a one-day suspension. Kirkpatrick, who had been on the job for three weeks when she referred the case to the commission on Sept. 22, said she was surprised by the decision. She pledged to overhaul Spokane’s oversight system to make it more responsive to the public.

Meanwhile, a City Council member and mayoral candidate is calling for the Spokane City Council to hold public hearings on any new police oversight proposals.

“I believe there will be council action on this issue,” Councilwoman Mary Verner said Friday.

Verner said she has asked Kirkpatrick to brief the city’s Public Safety Committee at its monthly meeting Monday on Pailca’s oversight recommendations.

Verner is also asking for an explanation from Kirkpatrick of the Police Department’s current policy on strip-searches – the subject of a civil rights lawsuit set for oral arguments in U.S. District Judge Robert Whaley’s court on May 23. Whaley recently appointed a Center for Justice lawyer to represent John Burton, an indigent man who was strip-searched without a warrant in a 2005 drug sting in the West Central neighborhood.

In his March 22 order granting Burton’s request for a lawyer, Judge Whaley said Burton’s lawsuit alleging he was illegally strip-searched in violation of his constitutional rights has a “high likelihood of success.”

Court declarations filed by police officers involved in the incident say it’s Police Department policy to conduct warrantless strip-searches on drug suspects. The 9th U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that it’s illegal to strip-search a suspect without a warrant outside of a jail or prison.

In court documents, the city admits that Burton was strip-searched for weapons and contraband during the arrest but contends his arrest was lawful. City lawyers have countersued Burton, saying his lawsuit is unfounded and malicious.

Verner said she hadn’t realized there was a controversy over the city’s strip-search policies until she read a Spokesman-Review story on the federal civil rights lawsuit published last Saturday.

“We should be better informed on this,” Verner said.

Kirkpatrick, who has been in Federal Way this week at an arbitration hearing for a police lieutenant she fired last year while serving as police chief in that city, said she’s been briefed on the Burton case and will respond Monday to the Public Safety Committee’s questions.

The committee also will be briefed on whether the city of Spokane wants to join the cities of Spokane Valley, Airway Heights, Cheney, Medical Lake and seven outlying fire districts in seeking a new master contract governing ambulance rates and response times for most of Spokane County.

American Medical Response, a private ambulance company, has had an exclusive contract since 1998 with the city of Spokane, but its rates and response times are not regulated outside Spokane city limits. The other municipalities and fire districts are attempting to change that with a new countywide contract.

To be part of that countywide contract, the city would have to cancel its current contract with American Medical Response, which is scheduled to expire next year. Canceling the contract now and going with a countywide contract could result in higher rates for city residents, officials have said.

There is a class-action lawsuit under way involving only city residents who allege they were overbilled by AMR since 1998. The city is not a party to the suit.