SPOKANE, WASH. — Preston McCollam cites “transparency” and “accountability” as priorities as he steps into his new leadership role as the Acting Prosecuting Attorney for Spokane County.
McCollam was unanimously selected by the Spokane County Board of Commissioners for the role following Larry Haskell’s resignation. He has worked in the Prosecutor’s Office for ten years in several units including the Major Crime and Gang Unit. His prosecutorial career began in Benton County in 2013.
In his first sit-down interview since taking the position, McCollam outlined his priorities and the challenges facing the prosecutor’s office. Chief among his concerns is improving operational efficiency, a goal complicated by the county’s aging infrastructure.
“When you look at a lot of the other counties that have modern facilities their processes are much more efficient, because their system was set up in a way to be more efficient. So, I love our courthouse, it’s a great building, but it was also built in the early 1900’s,” McCollam said.
When the current courthouse was constructed, the prosecuting attorney could appoint at most two deputies. Today, the office is authorized to appoint 72 deputy prosecutors, creating operational constraints in a building not designed for such scale. Currently, McCollam leads roughly 65 attorneys and many support staff.
The aging facilities extend beyond the courthouse to include the county jail, both of which present logistical challenges for modern prosecutorial operations.
“What I would like to see, a regional justice center, where we have a facility and the interconnectivity with our courts, defense, and service providers to be able to have a central clearing house for those things,” McCollam said.
McCollam also emphasized his commitment to transparency and accountability in his role.
“There’s a lot of members of the public that pass in and out of these doors and people never know it,” McCollam said.
“That is a huge function of being a prosecutor is, you’re accountable to the community you serve, and I believe very strongly in that.”
McCollam’s focus on efficiency improvements reflects broader challenges during a time of national prosecutor shortages. In the last year, McCollam led a recruitment effort to improve the pay scale for attorneys through the county commissioners. McCollam celebrated three future hires to the Spokane County office who were law graduates in the spring and passed the bar exam last week.
“It’s very hard right now to attract qualified candidates who are willing to be on call, to respond to crime scenes, to go into court for maybe less than they can make in the private sector, and then also have to stand up to a lot of scrutiny,” McCollam said.
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