Alarming police statistic wrong

Spokane voters were misled last fall when city officials claimed layoffs had left the police force so short-staffed that no officers were available for 29 life-threatening emergencies in 2005.

The statistic, which authorities now acknowledge was incorrect, was so alarming that it became a focal point in the drive to boost property taxes to avoid deeper cuts in Spokane police and fire departments this year. Voters approved the two-year levy in November by 60 percent.

But a recent analysis of the 29 emergency calls that former Spokane Police Chief Roger Bragdon cited in presentations to City Council members revealed that most were incorrectly classified. The actual number of life-threatening calls that police were unable to immediately respond to was just four, according to documents obtained by The Spokesman-Review.

Bragdon, who retired in December, now says he should have done more research before citing the figure.

“I should have realized that the number was too high and done some analysis just on those priority-one calls,” said Bragdon, who added that in previous years the number had been around three or four. “I had it in my head that the number was going to be high, so I let the number go through.”

How much voters relied on the statistic in choosing whether to support the levy is unknown. The figure wasn’t included on the general election ballot, but it was reported widely by local news outlets prior to the vote.

The discrepancy was discovered earlier this month by Deputy Police Chief Al Odenthal, who decided to research the figure after seeing it repeated in a recent newspaper article about homeowners firing on burglars with their own weapons before dialing 911.

Odenthal asked the police department’s records division to print the 29 reports so he could analyze why requests for service where people’s lives were in danger weren’t being answered within a three- to four-minute response time that is considered acceptable.

“That (29 figure) didn’t square with the priorities of this department,” Odenthal said. “As a police administrator, it concerned me.”

Among other things, he felt it was giving the community an incorrect perception of the department’s ability to protect the public.

What he found was that the police force was responding properly. Just four of the 29 calls turned out to be incidents in which no units were immediately available. And officers did eventually respond.

One of the calls was placed on New Year’s Day 2005, according to the police reports. But when officers got to where gang members reportedly had been crashing a party, the callers refused to file a complaint.

Another report involved a car being repossessed. A man went after the repossession people with a baseball bat. People who do repossessions are instructed to back away if they are threatened and come back later, Odenthal said. Police aren’t supposed to get involved in those situations.

After a police officer finishes a call he or she is supposed to change the priority status in the data system if it’s warranted, Bragdon explained. But that, apparently, didn’t happen.

Other incidents among the 29 calls included malfunctioning panic alarms, suspected burglars who turned out to be spouses, a hearing impaired person’s test call to 911 and fights that ended within two minutes, according to the reports.Bragdon said he didn’t read through the police reports tied to any of the calls he cited in his presentation, because as chief he was too busy to boil down every statistic.

He said he requested the data, which he referred to as raw, for use in October before speaking to the Spokane City Council about the upcoming 2006 budget.

“I wanted to make sure they understood that the 2005 cuts were too deep when I was giving them the data,” Bragdon said. “All the administration was doing every single day was budget, and trying to figure out how to provide public safety with the force that we had.”

The Spokane Police Department has operated with 25 fewer officers than normal since 2002, and projected a shortage of up to 36 officers by March due to retirements. However, interim Police Chief Jim Nicks said the department will be able to replace some of the retirees.

When Bragdon made the budget presentations in October, his request was to at least maintain the current staffing at the police department.

Former Spokane City Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers, who remembers the October presentation, was surprised to learn this week that the statistic Bragdon cited was wrong.

“I took the figure very seriously. I’m sure the voters did, too,” said Rodgers, adding that the data was a factor in the council’s discussion about proposing the increased tax levy.

“I thought it was a very significant number,” she added. “And I remember the look on the other council members’ faces when we heard that figure.”

Rodgers said she still would have supported the levy request had Bragdon cited the correct, but much lower figure. “But I wouldn’t have been so alarmed,” she said. “I just assumed he had analyzed those calls, and they were legitimate.”

Not all council members recall the figure, though.

“If I had heard that number I would have been alarmed, but that statistic would not have made a difference in asking for the levy lid lift,” said Mayor Dennis Hession, who was serving as council president at the time.The tax levy approved in November will raise $3.3 million in each of the next two years. The council also boosted the city’s utility tax to 20 percent, up from 17 percent.