Spokane Mayor Condon forms committee for police chief search

The city of Spokane has formed a citizen committee to advise on the search process for a new police chief but doesn’t expect recruitment for the job to begin until early 2016.

The seven-member committee will hold town hall meetings over the next three months and provide input on the chief’s job description, the attributes the community wants in a new chief and what the hiring process should look like, the city said in a news release Wednesday.

The committee’s chairwoman is Mary Ann Murphy, former executive director of Partners with Families and Children. Committee members are Toni Lodge, co-founder and director of The Native Project; Spokane NAACP President Naima Quarles-Burnley; former U.S. attorney Jim McDevitt, a member of the Spokane Regional Criminal Justice Commission; Kennewick police Chief Ken Hohenberg; former Use of Force Commission member Susan Hammond, a retired mental health professional; and Spokane City Councilman Jon Snyder.

They will separately advise the city on the process for a police department cultural audit.

“This committee will facilitate a meaningful discussion about the community’s expectations for the next police chief, desired attributes and how we should go about finding one, and is also uniquely qualified to discuss how we should evaluate our police department culture,” Mayor David Condon said in the news release.

Feedback on the chief search process can be emailed to the committee at policechiefsearch@spokanecity.org.