Police are busier and quicker

One recent weekday, Spokane Valley Police Department officers dealt with a traffic-snarling crash near Interstate 90 just before noon.

In the next three hours, Valley officers also chased a man suspected of stealing a snow blower, responded to a crash at the Opportunity post office, and tried to locate an armed robber.

In the year since Valley Police hit the streets, the department handled 31,266 calls from citizens for crimes and crises both major and minuscule, according to data released this week. That’s an average of 86 calls for service each day and a 9 percent increase from the previous year when the Sheriff’s Office, which oversees the new police department, patrolled the Valley as part of its overall responsibilities.

Yet, despite the increased work load, the average Spokane Valley resident gets faster service now than before the Valley became a city, the data suggests. Valley officers showed up more quickly to all types of calls inside the city limits.

“People feel like we’re more responsive and I hope we really, truly are,” said Cal Walker, Spokane Valley police chief.

The changes began in June 2003 when the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office signed an $11.5 million contract with Spokane Valley to provide service to the newly incorporated city of 82,005. As part of the contract, the Sheriff’s Office agreed to remake its Valley detachment into something resembling a municipal police department.

Valley officers and sheriff’s deputies began working 12-hour shifts instead of 10. All the patrol districts were readjusted. The command structure changed and Walker, a sheriff’s captain, was appointed police chief.

The transformation still isn’t fully complete. Some Valley officers still drive the old Sheriff’s Office patrol cars. The department has yet to agree on a design for a department patch for uniforms.

So far, city officials have been happy with their largest contract, City Manager Dave Mercier said. The department has been responsive and the city has no intention of making major structural changes next year, Mercier said.

“I think that police services in the community have functioned quite well,” Mercier said. “It has created a higher presence of police officers on the street.”

A recent survey done for Spokane Valley by Clearwater Research Inc. showed 85 percent of respondents rated the quality of police services as good, very good or excellent. Walker said he thinks more people are reporting crimes they didn’t bother to tell anyone about in the past, because they’re more confident that police will respond, even if it’s a minor incident.

“If your neighbor sees you got a good response, they’ll report something they might not have reported before,” Walker said.

Police responded to 1,153 incidents of vehicle prowling, 2,684 thefts and 2,291 traffic accidents in the Spokane Valley during the department’s first year. There were 825 burglaries reported, 859 assaults, 38 adult rapes, 2,684 thefts and 475 vehicles stolen in Spokane Valley.

The average response for high priority calls – such as a burglary in progress – was 5 minutes and 2 seconds. Mid-priority calls took an average 11 minutes, 22 seconds. The lowest priority calls took an average of 15 minutes. Those were all faster than the previous year, perhaps because patrol boundaries were larger before Valley incorporation.

There were nine Valley Police officers, a K-9 unit and two motorcycle traffic officers on duty in Spokane Valley on the recent hectic afternoon that included the snow-blower theft, said Valley Police Sgt. Martin O’Leary.

Retiree Leonard Ferguson was eating lunch at his home a few blocks north of the University City Shopping Center when the alleged snow-blower thief sprinted through his back yard and over his neighbor’s fence, an officer in pursuit.

Ferguson said he’s been impressed with the police responsiveness.

“If anything happens around here at least I know I’m pretty well protected.” Ferguson said, a few minutes after he watched officers bring a thin, shirtless man out from his neighbor’s back yard in handcuffs. “They were on the ball, that’s for sure.”