Spokane police chief’s son criticizes barrier keeping father from applying

The son of interim Spokane police Chief Rick Dobrow penned an open letter to Mayor David Condon sharply criticizing his administration for requiring the next chief to have a bachelor’s degree.

Jeff Dobrow, a 31-year-old Air Force officer stationed in Montana, accused the mayor of bending to political pressure from his appointed Police Leadership Advisory Committee and from City Council President Ben Stuckart by including the degree requirement in the job description.

“The decision to replace Rick Dobrow with a ‘more qualified’ Police Chief is a waste of resources and anything but cost effective,” Jeff Dobrow wrote.

Chief Dobrow announced last week he will retire from the force March 1 and said his decision was motivated in part by the bachelor’s degree requirement recommended by the committee. Dobrow has served as a Spokane police officer for 21 years and has an associate’s degree, but never attended a four-year college. He said he’s considered applying for the permanent police chief job, but decided to retire once it became clear he wouldn’t be qualified.

Dobrow did not respond to an email seeking comment, and a department spokeswoman said he is on vacation for the next two weeks.

Condon said he talked with Dobrow over the course of about two weeks to make sure he was comfortable with his decision to retire.

“I supported his thought of applying for the job,” Condon said, referring to the permanent chief position. He said that based on his conversations with Dobrow, the chief’s decision to retire was also driven by a desire to spend more time with his family and factors beyond the degree requirement.

Condon said the chief’s job description is not finalized, but members of the advisory committee strongly supported the existing bachelor’s degree requirement. That requirement was waived in 2003 for retired Chief Roger Bragdon, who was hired in 2000 on the condition that he obtain a bachelor’s degree. Former interim police Chief Scott Stephens also lacked a bachelor’s degree when he was appointed in 2012, though he had completed most of the require coursework.

The strong support for a bachelor’s degree from the committee demonstrates that expectations of police officers have changed, Condon said.

Stuckart said he was unsure why the letter mentioned him, since he has never expressed an opinion on whether the chief should have a bachelor’s degree and is not involved in writing the job description.

“It’s the mayor’s prerogative to set job descriptions,” he said.

Mary Ann Murphy, who chairs the advisory committee, said the degree requirement was a deal-breaker for several committee members, including herself.

“We give police more power than just about anybody in our society. We give them the power to take away our freedom and even to kill us,” she said. “You don’t just need to know how to do your job. You have to have perspective and values and knowledge of history.”

Jeff Dobrow said that aside from the degree, his father exemplifies the qualities the committee wants in a Spokane chief, including a commitment to community policing and to being a guardian, not a warrior. He said his father was committed to the reform efforts former Chief Frank Straub was working on.

“To say that he’s not qualified because he doesn’t have a four-year degree is kind of silly,” he said.

Jeff Dobrow said his father knew he was planning to write an open letter to the mayor but didn’t read the letter before he sent it out. He ended the letter suggesting Spokane residents consider voting for new elected leaders.

“My father has the deepest respect for you and your office as well as the Spokane Police Department and the Spokane community,” he wrote to Condon. “This is why I am writing on his behalf. I do not share the same respect for the civilian leadership and indeed would be much more active in seeing that it is replaced if I resided in Spokane,” he wrote.