Valley police, Catholic school reach partnership expected to make each safer: ‘We want them to be in the community’

St. Mary Catholic School in Spokane Valley opened a room on its campus to deputies so they have a safe space to write reports, use the restroom, eat lunch or just relax during their shift.

“It’s just truly amazing and a great partnership to have them there,” Vice principal Brian Hull said. “We get the added benefit of having a police presence on campus and they have a safe environment to come and work and kind of reprieve during the work day.”

Hull said the idea stemmed from the desire to have increased safety and security for students and staff.

The school, located at 14601 E. Fourth Ave., held a safety and security symposium in May with parishioners, parents, faculty, staff and community members, and a partnership with the Spokane Valley Police Department was one of the “big ticket items” that came from the meeting, he said.

So, Hull said school officials reached out to the police department, which contracts with the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, over the summer to discuss the proposal.

He said the school, which has 221 students from preschool to eighth grade, doesn’t have enough in its budget to pay for a school resource officer, so this space allows for a type of law enforcement presence there.

Police Chief Dave Ellis said it’s a great partnership for the department and the school.

“We’ve got some other partnerships throughout the community somewhat similar to that that have been real successful for us,” Ellis said.

He said his deputies can use spaces to write reports and relax elsewhere in the city, like at the Spokane Valley Mall and at an apartment complex.

There’s also a small office at the Riverside School District in Chattaroy that opened last summer for sheriff’s office deputies to use.

Cpl. Mark Gregory, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said school resource deputies have offices in Spokane County high schools that patrol deputies can use during the day, but the unique part about the St. Mary and Riverside offices is deputies can access those spaces at night and early in the morning.

“Honestly, whether they use (the offices) one time or 500 times, the simple fact of the matter is, especially like Riverside, there’s just really not a lot up there short of going into convenience stores to use restrooms,” Gregory said.

He said the spaces are also great for writing reports because leaning over to type long reports in a patrol car is not fun. Plus, it can be unsafe writing a report from a car in an isolated area at night, Gregory said.

Hull said the Catholic school outfitted an underused office space for deputies in its Adult Center on the north side of its campus. The center, equipped with wireless internet, also has a refrigerator, oven, microwaves and coffee machines for deputies to use. Snacks and beverages are laid out on a table in the room.

The substation, as Hull referred to it, became operational Dec. 15, and he said he’s pretty confident deputies have slowly started to use the space.

Ellis said his deputies work in assigned areas of town, so the substation and others like it allow deputies to stay in their districts, which is where he wants them to be, instead of returning to the main precinct.

“We want them to be visible,” Ellis said. “We want them to be in the neighborhoods. We want them to be in the community.”

Ellis said deputies can also watch for suspicious behavior, vandalism and other potential crimes at and near the school, especially at night, which is when most deputies are expected to use the substation.

He said the department is excited to work with the school and interact with the students.

“That’s a great thing,” Ellis said. “We want to be approachable, and so getting out of the cars and being approachable in the community is certainly a benefit.”