Some Teeth for the Watchdog?

Spokane Council to take up resolution urging Mayor to bargain for independent investigative authority for police Ombudsman.

At the behest of a coalition of Spokane citizen groups, including the Center for Justice, the Spokane City Council on Monday will take up a resolution that would considerably strengthen the powers of the city’s Office of Professional Ombudsman.

The resolution, sponsored by City Councilman and Public Safety Committee member Bob Apple, would move address the key weakness in the ombudsman position that critics have pointed to: the lack of independent investigative authority.

Under the ordinance passed last year to establish the office, the Ombudsman would be limited to sitting in on Spokane Police Department internal affairs investigations into complaints against officers. The Ombudsman could not initiate investigations without the police department agreeing to investigate the complaints, and then could only request that the department repeat or improve investigations whose results the Ombudsman could not sign off on.

Despite the 2007 recommendations to the contrary by a city consultant, Mayor Mary Verner has thus far repeatedly resisted calls to include independent investigative authority in the Ombudsman’s job description. The resolution to be taken up and debated Monday night would formally request that independent investigative authority be sought by the “Mayor and City Administration” as it negotiates new collective bargaining agreements with the Spokane Lieutenants and Captains Association and the Police Guild.

The consideration of the resolution comes two weeks after a pivotal ruling by the Washington Public Employment Relations Commission in a dispute involving the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild. The PERC found that the City of Seattle was within its rights to allow an independent review body access to uncensored police records. The basis of the PERC’s ruling was that because the review body in Seattle had no role in disciplining police officers, the City did not have to obtain the police union’s consent through collective bargaining.

The Center for Justice has consistently taken the position that the City administration is well within its rights to give the Ombudsman independent investigative authority because the position would have no role in disciplining police officers.