Council agrees to more cops

Spokane City Council members said this week they are ready to respond to complaints from the public that more needs to be done to stop neighborhood crimes such as burglary and theft.

They said they are going to use $310,000 from the city’s improved tax collections to hire four more police officers. Two would work as neighborhood resource officers and two as detectives.

“We’re going to be thrilled to get any help we can,” Cpl. Tom Lee, city police spokesman, said on Friday.

During a budget study session on Thursday, council members considered priority requests from Chief Anne Kirkpatrick to add four detectives or four neighborhood resource officers to stem crime in the city.

Councilman Bob Apple argued that both were needed and argued for hiring two of each. “It’s still not enough, but it’s a start,” he said.

Council President Joe Shogan said he did not want to fund additional officers in 2007 if there is a chance the positions might be cut in 2008 when a 2-year voter-approved increase in property taxes expires.

Council members said it appears they can hire the additional four officers and continue funding them beyond 2007.

No formal vote was taken on the additional police officers. That is expected in the next few weeks when council members take final action on a proposed $134 million general tax fund for police, fire, streets, parks, libraries and other City Hall services.

Sales tax receipts are up 11 percent this year and are expected to continue increasing at a more modest rate in 2007. Higher energy costs also have boosted utility tax collections from electricity and natural gas consumption.

Three neighborhood resource officers are assigned to the north side of the city while two NROs work in the downtown area. One NRO works on the east side, and another works on the south side. One of the two downtown NROs is being financed through an agreement with the Spokane Transit Authority, which had sought help controlling crime problems in and around its downtown bus terminal.

Lee said some of the NROs are unable to keep up with the demands to solve crimes in their areas, especially in the large northwest part of the city. He said the North Side resource officers often work as a team busting drug houses. Much of the city’s theft problem has been linked to methamphetamine abuse.

Apple said that the NROs work closely with neighborhood COPS shop volunteers, who take reports from victims of crimes such as car and garage prowls. He said volunteers are too often chastised by crime victims because police are unable to investigate their cases.

Lee pointed out that police respond to all in-home burglaries and try to determine if there are fingerprints or other evidence to refer the cases to a detective.