Spokane COPS’ future in jeopardy; board members resign after failure to reach agreement with city

The longtime provider of volunteer policing services in Spokane has lost the contract with the city to continue its work in partnership with the police department.

As a result, Spokane’s Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, is downsizing and its future is unclear.

In the last month, four board members resigned, two administrative employees have been laid off and the organization closed its West Central administrative office and moved to one of its eight neighborhood hubs on Addison Street and Wellesley Avenue, according to COPS Executive Director Jeff Johnson.

He said two cop shops – one at the “South” police precinct on Stone Street and the other at the “Northeast” precinct on Market Street – will close at the end of August because of the financial strains, which would leave six active shops. COPS rents space in the buildings where it operates.

The longtime Spokane nonprofit dedicated to crime prevention has relied on city funding during its 33-year history, but it will not receive the $200,000 the city budgeted for it over the next two years after city officials and the nonprofit could not agree on a contract.

“It is our opinion that they slow-walked the contract with the intent of driving us to bankruptcy, if you will, and that’s exactly what they’re doing,” Johnson said. “The city’s goal was to be able to say we offered the COPS money and they turned it down, and the reality is we want to continue. The terms of the contract are just impossible for us.”

City spokeswoman Erin Hut said the city gave COPS ample notification that the contract needed to be signed, but it did not respond by the deadline.

“We did our due diligence to try and reach a resolution, but no signature was ever signed, which is why we needed to move forward and switch paths,” she said.

The mostly volunteer organization has hosted programs that focus on community building, safety and in some cases, assisting with nonemergency police duties like taking fingerprints for crimes such as car thefts.

The organization’s contract was up for renewal at the end of 2024, but instead of re-signing the contract for another five years, the city created a competitive application in February that would set aside $320,000 to an organization that could provide community -oriented policing services. The $320,000 was much lower than the $500,000 the organization received in recent years, which city officials attributed to budget difficulties.

Johnson said the organization operates on a roughly $600,000 annual budget, so it would need additional funding even if it reached a financial agreement with the city.

Of the several applications the city received, it chose COPS to provide two services: “cocooning,” which involves patrolling a neighborhood after a crime occurred to prevent repeat criminal acts nearby, and a business watch program, which consists of working with businesses to improve safety and deter crime by making sure businesses have proper lighting and surveillance cameras directed in the right areas, for example.

The proposed contract offered to COPS was for $200,000 over two years after the organization did not provide a “sufficient answer” for how they would provide outreach to historically marginalized communities, a third service the city wanted the applicant to provide, according to Hut.

The remaining $120,000 will go out for another bid for the marginalized communities aspect.

The city provided COPS with the contract April 18, Hut said. Since then, the two sides have gone “back and forth,” with the city adjusting the contract twice per COPS’ requests.

The city provided an updated contract to COPS on June 25 with a request to sign the contract by July 3, but the nonprofit did not respond by that deadline, according to Hut.

On July 8, she said the COPS board asked for additional information from Spokane police, and police responded that day. The next day, the city notified COPS it needed to respond by the end of the day or the contract would be “redirected” potentially to another organization to fulfill the services, she said.

Johnson said COPS replied to the city’s email saying they couldn’t respond by the end of the day but would respond after their July 16 board meeting. The city said that would be too late, according to Johnson.

Johnson said the contract was “very open ended” and worried that the city could take ownership of the nonprofit’s programs, some of which they’ve operated for years, if they signed the contract.

Hut said the city has been responsive to changing the contract per the nonprofit’s request, but the organization opted not to sign it.

With no contract in place, the city has not decided what it will do and is having conversations with police and other partners. Sending the two programs out for another request for proposals is one of the options being reviewed.

“We have a commitment to community -oriented policing and that can be demonstrated in a variety of ways and we will continue to do that,” Hut said.

The COPS board members met in the following days and four members – board Chairman Scott Burkart, Brandy Dickinson, former Spokane City Councilwoman Karen Stratton and Dave Talarico – resigned over the contract, Johnson said. He said some board members wanted to sign the contract and others didn’t.

Former Spokane County District Court Judge Randy Brandt, former West Central Neighborhood Council Chair Kelly Cruz, Spokane City Councilman Michael Cathcart and Spokane Police Assistant Chief Matt Cowles remain on the board, but there’s not enough of them to conduct business, according to Johnson.

Johnson said he set a meeting for July 31 to fill the empty board member positions and discuss the organization’s next steps.

“It’s very unfortunate,” Johnson said. “It just didn’t have to be this way, but we obviously, our organization just has not met the narrative of what the new administration is looking for.”

Johnson said he’s not sure what COPS will look like given the budget constraints, but it will look different and its programs will have to change.

“It may be COPS 2.0, but yeah, we’re not gonna let it die,” Johnson said. “I mean, it might look different and we might take a short hiatus, but we’re not going away.”