What do you believe our community needs in our next Police Chief? Please come make your voice heard!

Community Forum on Police Leadership

Thursday January 21, 6:30 – 8:00

Community Building Lobby, 35 W. Main

Snacks provided

Sponsored by: Peace & Justice Action League of Spokane, Spokane Police Accountability & Reform Coalition, Greater Spokane Progress, Smart Justice Spokane, Center for Justice, Spokane NAACP

Mayor Condon’s Police Leadership Advisory Committee is seeking community input to prepare for hiring the next police chief.

We are holding the Community Form on Police Leadership because the mayor’s Police Leadership Advisory Committee (PLAC) members have told us that it is critical for grassroots people and organizations to have a clear voice in this process! This is a very important opportunity for community members and organizations to speak out and name our expectations for the next police chief and provide input on the kind of leader we want to lead the Spokane Police Department into the future.

A new police chief is not enough. Right now regional criminal justice reforms are getting traction and moving forward. The police department is a critical piece of this overall comprehensive change to create smart justice in Spokane. Strong community presence at this meeting will signal Mayor Condon that we need him to lead an inclusive and transparent hiring and reform process that will create lasting change.

Format for Community Forum – After a brief presentation from PLAC there will be an opportunity for 10 organizations to give direct testimony, and then participants will go into small groups with PLAC members to give verbal & written input. PLAC will use comments to develop their report to the mayor. To sign up to testify in behalf of your organization, please contact Liz Moore with the Peace and Justice Action League at [email protected].

Sign up and share on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/events/202115520137599/

If you absolutely can’t make it to the forum, please give input by email on the three areas listed below. Send your comments to: [email protected]

or use the form here: my.spokanecity.org/bcc/committees/police-leadership-advisory-committee. If you represent an organization you are encouraged to submit your comments on your organization’s letterhead.

Pre-forum briefing:

To prepare for providing input to PLAC, you are invited to attend a Police Accountability Issue Briefing hosted by the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane on Thursday, January 21 from 5-6:30pm in the same location. To sign up and share on Facebook go to: https://www.facebook.com/events/194878797530195/.

Background

Before he was re-elected, Mayor Condon appointed a Police Leadership Advisory Committee including several distinguished community leaders including Spokane NAACP President Naima Quarles-Burnley, NATIVE Project Director Toni Lodge, and longtime community leader Mary Ann Murphy. Preparatory to a national, regional, and local search for the City of Spokane’s next Police Chief, the PLAC says,

“We hope to devise a thorough and transparent process for answering the charge from the mayor to hold town hall forums to solicit community input on three areas:

  • Review and make recommendations to strengthen the current chief of police job description
  • Identify the attributes the community is seeking in the next police chief
  • Recommend the hiring and selection process that should be used

“We expect to deliver a summary of all the themes we hear to the mayor. The mayor has assured us that our report will NOT “sit on a shelf’; he will consider our recommendations.”

Here are links to recent news coverage about Mayor Condon and the Spokane Police Department:

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