Chief promises plan for citizen oversight

Spokane is six years behind Seattle in establishing a new citizen oversight system for its Police Department, but a new proposal will be put before the City Council next month, Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick told a citizens forum Tuesday night.

The changes that put a civilian, Seattle lawyer Sam Pailca, in charge of Seattle’s new Office of Police Accountability in 2001 represented a “huge culture change” for that Police Department, Kirkpatrick told an audience at the Northeast Community Center.

Pailca was peppered with questions about what kind of new citizen oversight structure should replace the near-defunct Citizens Review Commission established in Spokane in 1995.

The audience of about four dozen people included several citizen activists, including Mary Ann Tripp, who lobbied for a citizen oversight board in Spokane in the 1980s, and Shannon Sullivan, whose petition triggered the recall of late Spokane Mayor James West for abuse of office in 2005.

John Dixon, of Hillyard, asked why Spokane’s Citizens Review Commission failed to meet for a decade and recently declined to resolve a case that Kirkpatrick had referred to them, calling the group’s inactivity “a very strange phenomenon.”

“The fact that it lay dormant for so long is a significant problem,” Pailca replied.

But even though the commission was largely inactive, Pailca said Spokane was one of the first cities in the state to try some form of citizen oversight. The community is now actively discussing how it could be improved, she added.

“Spokane should be proud of the attention given to the subject,” Pailca said.

A man who declined to give his name thanked Kirkpatrick for taking a series of steps to bolster confidence in her department. He said the new oversight committee must be independent of the Police Department. “No other framework is acceptable,” he added.

Pailca said a new oversight model that’s gaining favor throughout the country is that of an independent auditor with a dedicated budget – a system already in place in Boise.

Whatever system is chosen here, residents want to be kept in the loop after they’ve filed complaints. If that happens, people are more likely to be satisfied even if a ruling goes against them, Pailca noted.

The public still has two more weeks to comment. After that, Pailca will write her report for Kirkpatrick, who will submit her proposal for a revamped oversight process to the Spokane City Council for consideration in March.

Although the changes must be negotiated with the Spokane Police Guild, “this sounds like it’s going to go somewhere,” said City Councilman Bob Apple, who attended the forum.