SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane City Council voted in favor of extending the city’s contract with the Community Oriented Policing Services (C.O.P.S.) on Monday night.
The council voted unanimously in favor of the resolution.
The vote means City Council will urge Mayor Lisa Brown to extend the city’s contract with C.O.P.S. through the end of March with roughly $200,000 in funding. This would allow cops to remain operational while the city reviews its request for proposal (RFP), alongside other RFPs.
The city will use the RFPs to allocate funding to different community organizations.
C.O.P.S. Director Jeff Johnson said in recent weeks, the organization, which is mostly staffed by volunteers, is at risk of losing $500,000 in funding if it does not continue to receive funding from the city.
Without the extension, he said, C.O.P.S. was prepared to close its doors at the end of December.
C.O.P.S. was started in the early 90s to help respond to and prevent crime in neighborhoods across Spokane.
City Council’s Monday night vote also included a request that the Mayor’s Office create a formal plan for a future contract with some type of community policing organization by April 1, whether or not it is C.O.P.S.
COPYRIGHT 2024 BY KXLY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
