At forum, police chief appointee Meidl grilled on Thompson salute

Spokane police chief appointee Craig Meidl declined to name the officer who called for a salute of former officer Karl Thompson in spite of repeated demands from audience members at a public forum Wednesday night.

Though some of the 50 people in attendance asked Meidl about plans for the department’s future, many focused on Meidl’s past support of Thompson, who was convicted of civil rights violations in the death of Otto Zehm.

“We’re trying to move forward as an agency. We’ve been trying to move forward for five years and there are some people that don’t want to let us do that,” Meidl said.

The forum was the second of two organized by the Spokane City Council following Mayor David Condon’s surprise Aug. 1 announcement to appoint Meidl chief, skipping over two outsider finalists brought in for interviews following a lengthy hiring process.

That decision drew criticism from some community members who participated in the hiring process and felt their input was ignored by Condon.

In response to a question, Meidl said he has talked to the officer who called for the salute and the officer has apologized, but said naming him would only open old wounds.

Mary Ann Murphy, who chaired a committee picked by Condon to provide input on the chief search process, responded by saying, “Then I think you can’t be chief.”

The council will vote on whether to confirm Meidl on Monday.

After the forum, Councilman Mike Fagan said he would vote to confirm Meidl, citing the need for stability in the department and input from constituents.

Fagan said the repeated questions about Meidl’s role in the Thompson salute were from a “vocal minority” mostly affiliated with the Spokane Police Accountability and Reform Coalition.

Councilman Breean Beggs said he’s still waiting for input from constituents, but said regardless of how the vote turns out, he appreciates Meidl’s willingness to work on moving forward from the Zehm case.

“There’s a lot of brokenness that needs to be brought out in the open,” he said.

Councilwoman Lori Kinnear also said she hasn’t made up her mind. She’s waiting to talk one-on-one with Meidl later this week about how the police ombudsman’s office can conduct independent investigations, she said.

Wednesday’s forum had fewer people in attendance than a council-organized forum last week, where about 100 showed up.

Questions were more pointed and confrontational Wednesday, with some people calling Meidl “delusional” and guffawing at his answers.

But Meidl also had opportunities to address his plans for stabilizing the department, providing better mental health care and community outreach.

He touted the department’s work to provide crisis intervention training for officers, but said solving mental health crises requires resources like diversion facilities that can’t be built by a police department alone.

“We need more resources for people in these mental health crises,” he said, and he would advocate for those facilities.

Meidl repeatedly pledged to be “transparent” in his handling of the department.

He said early priorities would include making recent temporary promotions permanent, working out some remaining Department of Justice recommendations for the department with police unions and finishing procedural justice and implicit bias training for officers.

Asked why he would even want to be chief in the face of so much hostility, Meidl spoke about the community support he sees for the police in Spokane.

“There’s a lot of people frustrated with our department. There’s a lot more people who have support for our department,” he said.