(The Center Square) – Despite Mayor Lisa Brown launching the investigation, Spokane Police Ombuds Bart Logue said on Tuesday that his hands are essentially tied by the Spokane Police Guild’s contract.
Brown and Spokane Police Chief Kevin Hall called on the Office of the Police Ombuds, or OPO, in June to investigate actions taken by officers during a recent immigration protest. The whole ordeal started with a call to action from former Council President Ben Stuckart, who is now facing federal charges.
The Spokane Police Department responded on June 11 after protesters attempted to prevent federal agents from transporting a migrant to a detention facility in Tacoma. The advocates allegedly blocked exit points, slashed the transport van’s tires, and some may have assaulted law enforcement officers.
Several other agencies responded to support SPD, with officers deploying pepper balls and non-lethal means to disperse the crowd after repeated warnings. A few protesters testified at the Police Ombuds Commission meeting on Tuesday, accusing SPD of excessive use of force and failure to de-escalate.
“We can talk about something we want to see different and point to recommendations which would lead to that systemic improvement,” Logue clarified on Tuesday, “but if we’re going to push it towards a violation of state law, I’m going to have to sit and ponder how we’re going to do that.”
Brown and Hall asked OPO to review all relevant sections of SPD policy, any departures from that and to review command-level operations and decisions. However, OPO’s ability to investigate and discipline is largely limited by a collective bargaining agreement between the city and the Spokane Police Guild.
OPO staff noted they received 22 complaints about the recent immigration protests. Still, Logue said the contract doesn’t allow him to compel testimony. SPD’s internal affairs team can compel officers to testify, but OPO can only request and cannot state in reports whether alleged conduct aligned with SPD policy.
“We are specifically forbidden to do that inside of the contract,” he said. “We cannot say if it’s right, we cannot say if it’s wrong, and we have to put that in writing … and I’m going to point that out again and again and again and again and again, until we get that fixed, so that we can say what is right.”
According to OPO’s complaint process, investigations into complaints are mainly handled by SPD’s internal affairs team, who then have the ombuds certify the resulting report. Logue said that he needs the city and guild to sign a memorandum of understanding, granting OPO the authority to dig deeper.
He said the OPO has reviewed and commented on a draft agreement, but neither party has signed it.
Hours after the June 11 protest, Brown and Hall held a press conference, during which he said footage showed instances that, in Hall’s opinion, the city could have classified as assaults against SPD officers.
“Just watching some of the footage, I think technically there were assaults, but the officers used an enormous amount of restraint and understood that the emotion that was behind this,” Hall said.
Law enforcement arrested more than 30 individuals on June 11, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington taking it a step further by filing federal charges against nine protesters.
Two of those protesters are facing charges for assaulting a federal officer.
