Brian Coddington

City, Police Guild reach new tentative agreement

Brian Coddington, Communications Director, No Phone Number Available

Tuesday, February 4, 2014 at 11 a.m.

City, Police Guild reach new tentative agreement

The Spokane City Council will consider an updated tentative agreement (PDF 833 KB) and revised draft ordinance (PDF 91 KB) when it meets on Monday.

The City of Spokane and the Spokane Police Guild reached a new tentative agreement that adds a fifth year to the contract, includes language for three mechanisms of independent investigations and empowers the ombudsman to public closing reports. A companion draft ordinance has also been revised to be consistent with the tentative agreement.

The new tentative agreement:

  • Extends the authority of the ombudsman to conduct pre-investigation follow-up interviews of complaints made directly to the Office of the Police Ombudsman
  • Gives the Police Ombudsman Commission the option to order an independent investigation by a third party when it believes the internal affairs investigation has not gone far enough with its inquiry
  • Empowers the Police Ombudsman Commission to direct the ombudsman to open an independent investigation when the internal affairs declines to open one
  • Adds a fifth year to the contract, which will run through 2016
  • Maintains the overall cost of compensation at 2.76 percent over the duration of the contract

The citizen Police Ombudsman Commission makes the final decision as to whether further investigation is necessary, and the ombudsman publishes a closing report.

The ombudsman retains its current authority to attend all administrative internal affairs interviews, ask questions, review the complete case file and make a determination as to the thoroughness and objectiveness of the investigation.

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