SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane C.O.P.S. will stay open for at least the next three months since city council approved a contract extension with the nonprofit that runs through March.
Despite some councilmembers having doubts about whether or not Spokane C.O.P.S. would get the funding it asked for for 2025, the city council unanimously passed the three month extension. This will allow the organization to stay afloat through the request for proposal process.
C.O.P.S. executive director Jeff Johnson said he was not expecting a unanimous vote from the city council that would extend $125,000 in funding to the nonprofit.
“It’s 90 days where we can start to plan for what’s next,” he said.
He believes the dozens of people who showed up to council meetings in support of C.O.P.S. helped convince the council to continue this contract.
Now, the organization is focusing on the city’s request for proposal process for funding, which is expected to open in the next few weeks.
“We still have to plan for the ‘What if’ if we don’t get it,” Johnson said. “Then we’ll have to shut down, because we don’t have a contract.”
Johnson expects the request for proposals to include an 18-month long contract with around $350,000 in funding. He said that amount of money would require C.O.P.S. to find other funding sources, even if it was awarded a contract with the county.
“We’re all about crime prevention,” he said. “I’m afraid from what I’ve heard, they may be leaning towards a model that’s more criminal advocacy, which would not be anything at all like what Spokane C.O.P.S. does right now.”
City council president Betsy Wilkerson said extending C.O.P.S. contract was mainly to make sure it could participate in the request for proposal process, which will ask the organization to clarify what exactly it does in the community.
“How do we deliver the same services with less volunteers? Is that more technology? What does that look like? Or is that more partnerships? What does that look like? I’m hoping the RFP will give us opportunities for those answers,” Wilkerson said.
Wilkerson believes community-oriented policing should play a role in the Spokane community regardless if C.O.P.S. stays open.
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