Canadian ombudsman finalist accepts job offer

Raheel Humayun has accepted an offer to be Spokane’s next police ombudsman, bringing an end in sight to the nearly year-long vacancy in the city’s independent police oversight job.

Humayun, a Canadian citizen who currently works as an investigator for the British Columbia Office of the Ombudsperson, still needs a work visa before he can come to the U.S., a process that might take several months.

As a condition of his employment, he must get a visa within 75 days and relocate to Spokane no more than 45 days later. The city has re-formed a search committee for the ombudsman job and is currently screening applications for an interim ombudsman in case Humayun is not able to get a visa quickly.

Humayun was the only finalist for the ombudsman job who is not a career law enforcement officer. He studied genetics in college and was a forensic investigator with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for six years.

His starting salary for the job will be $97,321.68.

Humayun said he’s proud to be selected the job in a city that’s worked hard for police oversight.

“It’s been a lot of sweat and tears from citizens of Spokane to build what is an extremely rare and fairly robust model for police oversight in the city,” he said.

When he starts work, Humayun said his priorities would be working through the backlog of police investigations that have gone unreviewed while the job has been vacant, working through the Department of Justice reform recommendations relating to the ombudsman’s office. During his job interview in August, he said heplanned to be creative and explore enlisting local law students to help get through the backlog quickly.

Another early priority is strengthening the ombudsman’s ability to conduct independent investigations, Humayun said, addressing a longstanding point of contention among police reform advocates who say the current city ordinance outlining the ombudsman’s role falls short of the investigative powers voters asked for when they passed Proposition 1 in 2013.

The ordinance says the ombudsman may conduct an independent investigation into a police misconduct complaint only after Internal Affairs has finished an investigation and declined to re-open it after requests from the ombudsman and ombudsman commission.

The ombudsman cannot compel police to be interviewed, something Humayun would like to see changed.

“They’re simply able to not answer his questions or remain silent on the issue,” he said. “That diminishes the robustness of that type of oversight.”

Humayun may be the first to put those investigatory powers to the test. Spokane’s last police ombudsman, Tim Burns, left the city at the end of 2014, just months after the the ordinance went into effect, and never opened an independent investigation.

In his interview, Humayun agreed with other candidates that the near-perfect record of the police department on complaints of excessive use of force was concerning. Since 2010, Internal Affairs has received 93 complaints of excessive use of force and sustained just one, department records show.

“It suggests that there were hundreds of frivolous or vexatious allegations made and I don’t believe that’s true,” Humayun said.

He also said the ombudsman’s power comes from his ability to publicize issues with police department investigations.

“The biggest power an ombudsman has is his microphone, meaning when he sees something, he’s able to say something and people will listen because he’s built credibility,” he said.

Humayun’s intial offer is for a three-year term, with the possibility of renewal by the police ombudsman commission.