Spokane City Council to approve new budget agreement with C.O.P.S

SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane’s Community Oriented Policing Services (C.O.P.S) is facing a substantial reduction in funding as it prepares to finalize a new contract with the city.

Made up mostly of volunteers, the program started in 1991 and provides services like fingerprinting, victim advocacy and neighborhood watch to communities across Spokane.

In past years, C.O.P.S received close to half a million dollars annually from the city. After months of back and forth with the city about funding, and a few different contract extensions, the new agreement is expected to allocate only $200,000 over the next two years.

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Jeff Johnson, Executive Director of C.O.P.S, said the reduced funding will support two new services: Cocooning and the Business Safety Coalition.

Cocooning involves volunteers patrolling areas after a crime to prevent further incidents, while the Business Safety Coalition aims to assist business owners with external lighting and landscaping to enhance safety.

The city said C.O.P.S lost $120,000 in funding due to an inadequate response during the application process about the service’s engagement with historically marginalized communities.

“I found it a little surprising because our shops are in marginalized neighborhoods right now,” Johnson said. “So, that was a bit of a ‘head-scratcher’ to me, because we feel that we do serve marginalized communities right now.”

The $120,000 lost by C.O.P.S. will be open for bidding by other organizations.

City officials said budget constraints are the reason for the overall reduction in funding.

Johnson said C.O.P.S services will be impacted now that their budget has been cut in half.

“If your car gets broken into, we do latent fingerprinting for the police, after the fact, we won’t be doing that anymore. National Night Out, we’ve always run that. I doubt we’re going to be doing that,” he said.

City Council is expected to finalize and approve the new contract with C.O.P.S by the end of the week.