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Doug Clark: Spokane goes through police chiefs faster than Walt Worthy goes through hotel linens
About a week has passed since our last change in police department leadership.
By Spokane standards, this is an unprecedented span of law enforcement stability.
The mayor should order a maintenance worker to mount one of those pride-engendering countdown signs over the City Hall front door.
You know, the signs you see in factories, like …
“It’s Been 13 Days Since The Last Forklift Impaling!”
For reasons unknown, this burg has been going through police chiefs more often than Walt Worthy goes through hotel linens.
The latest wrangler to be on the road again, as Willie Nelson croons, is Rick Dobrow.
The 55-year-old interim police chief surprised everyone the other day by revealing that he had come down with a sudden urge to spend more time with his family.
Ah, Ricky, we hardly knew ye.
Spokane Mayor David Condon anointed Dobrow to interim chief last fall after canning his ex-best pal, Chief Frank Straub, for a variety of alleged unchiefly behaviors.
Originally, the mayor had picked Straub to replace interim Chief Scott Stephens, calling Stephens “a great team leader” prior to jilting him like an unwanted prom date.
Do you sense a pattern?
Being liked by the mayor is the kiss of doom.
Dobrow did appear cheery at the news conference, telling reporters that he’d be hanging around the SPD until sometime before the Ides of March.
That’s when Jim McDevitt will take over – sort of.
McDevitt, 72, has never been a commissioned law enforcement officer. He’s likewise never run a police department.
On the plus side, McDevitt has donated twice to the Condon for Mayor campaigns.
McDevitt is also a former U.S. attorney and struck me as a very congenial guy when I bumped into him at one of the mayor’s victory bacchanalias.
The attitude is reportedly quite different among SPD brass.
Members of the Police Lieutenants and Captains Association are reacting to the idea of having a civilian run their department the same way Cam Newton took to being Super Bowled over.
I feel their pain. If I discovered an hour before surgery that my anesthesiologist was being replaced by my bartender, I’d be pretty put off, too.
But the mayor’s got it all figured out.
Not being a cop, McDevitt won’t carry the “interim chief” title. He will instead be called “director of law enforcement.”
Big deal. For what these guys make, you could call me the Grand Duchess of Dogtown.
Hmm. With all the cop chaos going on, I wonder if the mayor’s feeling any sudden urges to spend more time with his family?
On a side note, the continued SPDrama has been a huge emotional strain on Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich.
Every time we play the Police Chief Shuffle, Ozzie gleefully volunteers to run both departments only to be turned away quicker than a door-to-door Bible salesman.
A few more rejections and the poor man will have no self-esteem at all.
Meanwhile, City Council President Ben Stuckart has been absorbing this soap opera with a sense of wonder.
As in, I wonder why the hell Dobrow won’t stick around until the latest hunt for another chief concludes?
But Stuckart knows the drill around here.
“I hope this will allow for four months of stability,” he told a reporter, “while we look for a permanent chief.”
Permanent. Har! What a kidder.
Doug Clark is a columnist for The Spokesman-Review. He can be reached at (509) 459-5432 or by email at dougc@spokesman.com.