Editorial: Kirkpatrick’s aspirations only serve city well

When Spokane citizens had a chance to inspect the four remaining candidates for the city’s vacant police chief position, one thing they wanted to know was how long the handful of applicants would commit to staying here.

Most hedged. That would be up to the city, was a common answer.

Anne Kirkpatrick was distinctively precise. Five years, she drawled, showing us a glimpse of the candor she would demonstrate on the job after Mayor Dennis Hession finally hired her.

Today, four years later, Kirkpatrick is – for the second time – openly interested in another city’s top police job. She has asked to be reconsidered for the Seattle post, having earlier been eliminated from the field of semifinalists there, and she applied last year for the job in San Francisco.

So while Kirkpatrick missed on her time estimates, she was admirably frank about having career aspirations that would not allow death-do-us-part commitments to stay in one job indefinitely.

As for Kirkpatrick’s performance during the limited but tempestuous time she has been in Spokane, she’s earned favorable marks. She’s dealt with wrenching budget conditions that erupted since her arrival, and with persistent officer misconduct that began before she arrived. She hasn’t wrestled the department fully into shape yet, but she’s set high standards and taken action when they aren’t met.

That, no doubt, has a lot to do with the recent Police Guild vote in which about 40 percent of the rank and file expressed no confidence in the chief. We don’t find the Guild vote alarming. We see it as a sign of her willingness to put public safety and department professionalism ahead of union solidarity.

The fact is, when Kirkpatrick moved into her current job, she inherited a culture in which too much misbehavior had been allowed to slide. Cleanup takes time, and her efforts have been notably more earnest than those of her recent predecessors.

All of that would make it unsettling that she is contemplating a departure, except that a departure seems probable – if not now, later.

Indeed, Seattle may be a long shot, having dropped her from consideration once already. But as Kirkpatrick herself has conceded, her gender adds to her marketability in today’s world, and she can expect continued expressions of interest as top police jobs come along.

The city has many reasons to hope she stays, but when and if she goes, the city should remember an important lesson from the experience. Candidates for top leadership jobs shouldn’t get credit for promises to stay as long as the community wants them. Tennessee-born Kirkpatrick reached Spokane via Ellensburg and Federal Way, honing and demonstrating the talents that made her a compelling choice for Spokane.

Lofty goals provide a strong incentive to perform at exemplary levels every step of the way. Ambition is a good thing.