Spokane police went the entirety of 2025 without shooting and killing someone. The last time was 17 years ago

It had been almost two decades since Spokane police officers went a year without shooting and killing someone.

Last year, it happened.

“Something is working,” said Monica Alexander, the executive director of the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission. “… And it makes me happy.”

For years, Spokane police shootings would ebb and flow – in 2022, Spokane Police officers shot and killed three people, with another three shot and killed by Spokane County deputies. In 2023, police shot five people and killed three.

In 2024, police shot six people – two happening in one day. Only one person shot by police that year survived.

The succession of shootings that compelled Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown to issue a statement calling the wave “tragic for everyone involved.”

Spokane police have been no stranger to criticism about their shootings throughout the years. Online groups have referred to the department as “trigger happy,” and some community members have openly criticized the department.

The entire year of 2025 was different, though. Police did shoot and injure two people last year, according to data from the Spokane Police Department. None of them died.

Moving the needle

Spokane Police Chief Kevin Hall stressed the importance of using data to improve policing strategies and said departments should have more emphasis on de-escalation, well before he took over the department in 2024.

Now it seems like those ideas have translated throughout the police department. Even just telling officers it’s OK to take a step back or slow down when they are able has proven effective, Hall said .

“It’s just paying attention to it and doubling down on de-escalation. De-escalation is communication,” Hall said.

Officers have begun additional training under Hall known as “ICAT,” or “Integrating communications, assessment and tactics.”

It’s a program developed by the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit police research and policy organization that assists local police departments in a number of operations, like vetting new police executives. The forum’s board is made up of multiple police leaders from across the country, its website says.

The additional training is a 10-hour, one-day course that emphasizes crisis recognition, active listening and communication, “suicide by cop” incidents, medical and behavioral health emergencies, tactical operations and stepping in to prevent problems before they occur, according to its website.

“In the academy, (recruits) spend a lot of time on defensive tactics, shooting and all the technical aspects of being a police officer. They spend very little time on communication, which, in my opinion, is probably one of the most important skill sets to develop,” Hall said. “That’s why we emphasize that. And I do believe that is having an impact.”

Among the changes was Hall encouraging use of force investigators to shift how they view deadly force in general. Just because a shooting is justified, doesn’t always mean it was absolutely necessary, Hall explained, but that also doesn’t mean the officer did anything wrong. Even if the shooting was justified and the officer is cleared of any wrongdoing, Hall believes there is always room for improvement. Hall said if officers can’t make sure that type of police shooting will happen again, they can at least try to strive for a better outcome.

“We (did) need to look at our review boards … Not from the standpoint of whether it was justified, but from the standpoint of ‘Did this have to happen?’ or what we can do to improve so it doesn’t have to happen next time?” Hall said. “Now that happens at each and every one of these.”

In the months after Hall was sworn in, the department also quickly moved away from the term “exceptional techniques” to describe use of force incidents. It’s not defined and is riddled with ambiguity, Hall said. Officers were using the term to justify their actions when they went outside the scope of department policy, The Spokesman-Review previously reported. Spokane Police Ombudsman Bart Logue recommended the change in 2019, but nothing was done.

Removing and de-emphasizing that language seemed to help strengthen expectations, Hall said, calling the entirety of the efforts “a reset.”

Alexander, who spent 10 years as a sergeant in South King County, said she has had few interactions with the Spokane police chief. But she can tell he is paying attention.

“I like his perspective. I have also heard really good things about him, that he listens but brings his brains to every conversation,” Alexander said. “It’s healthy to bring in new ideas. One fresh set of eyes can move the needle.”

A dynamic environment

Logue was made the city’s permanent ombudsman in 2016. He has dealt with hundreds of complaints and use-of-force reviews.

For years, Logue and his office have tried to recommend policy changes following use-of-force incidents, should an officer encounter the same scenario again. Their mentality has remained the same.

“Police shootings will happen. We just want to avoid them when we can,” Logue said. “We are trying to enforce the point – don’t be the reason force is used.”

In 2021, Washington passed a bill requiring de-escalation tactics be part of an officer’s decision-making process before they choose to use lethal force. The bill also requires officers receive additional hours of mental health training.

“I think we are genuinely talking about use of force in Washington, and we have had very open and difficult conversations in this state about it,” Alexander told The Spokesman-Review. “One of our instructors always tells me that no matter how it is, use of force never looks good, because one person is overpowering another person. To the naked eye, it (looks) horrible.”

In 2024, the Spokane Police Department ranked fourth in the nation for deadly police interactions per capita, according to Mapping Police Violence, a police accountability group.

To Alexander, Hall’s suggestion to officers that it is OK to take a step back during a tense situation if they have the ability to do so means that the conversation is heading in the right direction. Logue also said that even trying to progress lower-level use of force incidents will help officers deal with higher-risk and possibly fatal incidents in the future.

“I have talked to so many impacted family members. Family members who have lost officers, too, and the pain looks the same,” Alexander said. “If we can stop it or hinder it, that is something to celebrate.”

Spokane police were coming off a hot trend with zero fatal shootings from the last year until this week. Officers on Wednesday shot and killed a suspect in a stabbing homicide from over the weekend. For hours, police attempted to establish communication with the suspect until he tried to break through their perimeter with a long-range firearm, according to a news release from the department.

It marks the first police shooting in 2026 and breaks the department’s yearlong streak.

That day, Hall told The Spokesman-Review in an email that the department recognizes the impact police shootings have on community members and families, but also on the officers, who “must make split-second decisions in dangerous, rapidly evolving circumstances.”

While Hall says avoiding fatal shootings is the goal, it is not always possible to dictate the outcome. But progress is possible, he noted.

Logue is hesitant to say anything definitive about 2025’s zero fatal police shootings because things can change on a dime. Situations can often be stressful and dynamic, he added, and he believes every shooting is an individual event.

“Some years, it seems like we have many (shootings),” Logue said. “Other years, it seems like there are fewer. But I would like to have many years without a shooting. No officer wants that. It puts everyone (involved) through a lot.

“We don’t get to say we can’t ever have a fatal shooting, but we want the chief to do everything he can to keep them at an absolute minimum. I see him doing that.”

Editor’s note: This article was changed on Feb. 27, 2026, to correct information about Police Chief Kevin Hall’s position on using data to improve policing strategies. He is a strong proponent of using data.