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Police chief hits one year mark

Jody Lawrence-Turner
Staff writer
September 11, 2007

IBO is what some Spokane Police officers call their new chief.

It stands for itty-bitty officer – a reference to her size, not her stature.

True, Anne Kirkpatrick is only about 5-foot-4 and somewhere between 105 and 115 pounds. But she has “a commanding presence,” said Mayor Dennis Hession.

And the mayor isn’t alone in that assessment. A year to the day after she became Spokane’s top cop, Kirkpatrick has won admiration – or at least begrudging respect – from all quarters. Even police department critics are slow to criticize the woman in charge.

“She is doing well at communicating with the public, more than the previous chief,” said Breean Beggs, an attorney with the public-interest law firm Center for Justice.

The 48-year-old Kirkpatrick, whose accent still comes through more than 20 years after leaving her native Tennessee, said the new job feels like a good fit.

“I like Spokane better than I ever thought I would,” she said.

Weathervanes pointing positively

Other than her work, Kirkpatrick leads a simple life, starting most days with her “quiet time” of reading for an hour and praying for another hour. Then she runs for 2½ miles before diving into work, stopping in the afternoon for a Starbucks “black coffee, short drip, with no room.” In the evening, she runs another 2½ miles on a treadmill or outdoors, depending on the weather. And then more reading, typically nonfiction.

She doesn’t watch television.

Kirkpatrick, who is single and lives in a Peaceful Valley apartment, said she doesn’t cook. Peanut butter and honey sandwiches are a common meal. And recently, until she ran out of eggs, she’s been on a fried-egg sandwich kick.

“All I have in my refrigerator is a jar of mayonnaise,” she said.

Raised Southern Baptist, Kirkpatrick said she’s visited numerous Spokane churches, but hasn’t settled on one. “I hold membership in a Presbyterian church. However, I am not denominationally tied to being a Presbyterian.”

She’s frequently asked how long she’ll stay in Spokane, and says it will depend on what she calls her four “weather vanes”: the mayor, the public, the department and her own sense of accomplishment.

“So far all my weathervanes are pointing positively, but I need my report card from the public,” she said. “If a majority of this public believes in me and supports what I’m doing, then I’ll stay.”

She gauges how the public is judging her by attending public functions, listening to safety concerns, answering questions and reading letters to the editor. Beggs is still waiting to see whether a police ombudsman is put in place to provide independent oversight of police. And he’d like to see updated policies on police use of force and how officers handle the mentally ill.

Kirkpatrick said negotiations with the Spokane Police Guild on the ombudsman will begin within a few weeks. Meanwhile, the union has filed an unfair labor practices complaint regarding the department’s officer-involved protocol — which calls for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office to investigate incidents involving Spokane officers — saying that having the sheriff’s office as the primary investigator takes money away from its members, who would otherwise do the investigations.

The chief recently signed a contract with the California-based consulting group Lexipol to look over the department’s policies and procedures and recommend changes, if necessary. That includes use-of-force policies, which dictate when an officer can fire a gun or a Taser, for instance. Kirkpatrick wants any policy changes made, and resulting training completed, by the end of next year.

Neighborhood policing planned

Kirkpatrick said she’s also committed to implementing “neighborhood policing,” which has the support of the mayor as well as many neighborhood leaders.

The plan, which would be implemented over two years, would divide the city into four precincts, with a lieutenant, sergeant and officers devoted to each. It would require 24 additional officers.

The goal is for officers to get to know residents and the issues that concern them. Each precinct’s lieutenant would be a chief, of sorts, for that area.

Police brass “are going to consult the neighborhood councils about where to put officers,” said George Craig, West Central Neighborhood Council chair. Based on this proposal and Kirkpatrick’s performance so far, “I’m very excited about her, to tell you the truth.”

Dave Griswald, chairman of the Hillyard Neighborhood Council, is equally impressed.

“If that happens, our communities will be taking back their neighborhoods,” he said.

From the outset, Kirkpatrick established 10 goals for her first year, including reorganizing the department, and having outside investigations of officer-involved fatalities and “critical incidents.” She said all her goals have been accomplished or are in the works. One, re-instituting Crime Check, a 24-hour non-emergency number, will be on the ballot in November.

Controversies haven’t slowed

A year ago, Kirkpatrick walked into a department that was still dealing with fallout from the in-custody death of Otto Zehm. The department also was taking criticism for its handling of an investigation into an incidence of on-duty sex between a city firefighter and a teenaged girl.

Things haven’t necessarily quieted down since she took the helm.

• One officer resigned after he was seen buying and eating a marijuana-laced cookie at a rock concert.

• Kirkpatrick fired one of her corporals for letting a convicted sex offender, who possessed child pornography, live in his basement, and for storing the felon’s guns.

• She fired a rookie officer for violating what Kirkpatrick calls her cardinal rule: “If you lie, you die.”

• Two other officers are on unpaid leave and will be fired if convicted of the felonies for which they’ve been charged. One shot a man while off duty and legally drunk. Another allegedly threatened to kill his wife.

To an outsider who pays close attention to the department, “I think she’s fair with how she disciplines,” Craig said. “She calls a spade a spade. If you are on the wrong side, she’s going to let you know.”

Kirkpatrick often goes directly to the public to discuss such incidents. She also has held press conferences to defend officers she feels were treated unfairly – in one case pleading with reporters to stop using the term “hogtied” to describe how officers restrain suspects.

“Being candid, acknowledging your mistakes and being willing to be the face for the police department in a controversial time is important to the public,” Hession said. “She has to make decisions that are supportive of her troops and sensitive to the needs of her community.”

Even her most-ardent public critic, David Brookbank, concedes that Kirkpatrick “brings a lot of experience and skills to the job of police chief.”

Brookbank is the creator of a Web site called Spokane Police Abuses, which includes posts with names like “Spokane Police vs. Youth” and “Trained to Kill.” He said in an e-mail that he’s withholding judgment on Kirkpatrick to see if she changes the way business is done within the department and the way it treats the public – as on July 4, when protesters were arrested in Riverfront Park.So far, Kirkpatrick said, she has “No regrets in my decision to come here. No regrets in decisions I’ve made that affect people’s lives.”

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