SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane Community Oriented Policing Services is ending its partnership with the City of Spokane after 32 years. The two sides could not agree on a new contract, and the city rescinded its offer earlier this month.
The city offered C.O.P.S. $200,000 over 19 months to patrol neighborhoods after crimes and work with businesses to deter crime. C.O.P.S. says this amount is not enough to operate compared to its previous annual budget of nearly $600,000.
“With my salary, I’ll be gone in the next 30 to 45 days,” said Jeff Johnson, C.O.P.S. executive director.
The city set several deadlines for C.O.P.S. to sign the contract, but the organization ignored all of them.
“We gave C.O.P.S. much more time to respond to this contract and to make revisions than we do traditionally with other contractors,” said Erin Hut, city spokesperson. “Usually, we expect a contract to be signed within the first deadline that we give.”
C.O.P.S. is now looking for private donors to fund the organization. Johnson says they will have new sponsorship opportunities that were not available under the city contract.
“We have some sponsorship opportunities that we have not had in the past,” Johnson said. “We couldn’t put names on our vehicles. We couldn’t put names on our clothing or in our advertising. We have the ability to do that now.”
The C.O.P.S. administrative office is already closed. Johnson says they will likely close more C.O.P.S. shops around town as funding runs out.
The city is working to find another organization to fill the role C.O.P.S. performed. No decisions have been made about choosing a new organization for business watch programs or neighborhood patrols after crimes.
“We value community-oriented policing,” Hut said. “I think they exemplify that pretty openly through things like Coffee with a Cop and Take Back the Night.”
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