At first, Kevin Hall didn’t see law enforcement in his career. He was just sworn in as Spokane’s new police chief

When Kevin Hall was younger, he didn’t foresee a career in law enforcement.

On Monday, the former Tucson, Arizona, assistant chief was sworn in outside of city hall as Spokane’s new police chief.

“I was not one of those kids who wanted to be a police officer. Most of my friends and family were shocked,” Hall said in an interview with The Spokesman-Review this summer. “I didn’t think it would be a career for me at the time, but I fell in love.”

Hall, a 32-year employee of the Tucson Police Department, arrived in Spokane late last week with his wife, Karen. The two recently put an offer on a house that sits just outside the city limits, east of the South Hill.

“Like every city, it has its concerns and its issues, but this is a gorgeous city,” Hall said during Monday’s ceremony. “I absolutely adore this city and I plan on giving it 100% of everything I do.”

Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown told the crowd that attended Hall’s swearing -in ceremony she has no doubts “he will lead the department with distinction.”

“In my conversations with Chief Hall, it is abundantly clear he brings a commitment to transparency, community engagement and innovative policing that will not only strengthen the department but build trust and collaboration between our officers and our community,” she said.

Hall grew up in Southern California and began his policing career with the security forces division of the U.S. Air Force.

“I thought I was pretty good at it,” he said last month. “I came back to Tucson to be an officer and try my hand.”

Hall has policed the city of Tucson since he was 28 years old. During his time, he served as the commander for the Field Services Division with additional experience with various other department units, such as home invasion, homicide, SWAT, gangs, internal affairs and child abuse. He said he strongly supports evidence-based policing practices and prefers using data from around the U.S. to help guide local law enforcement decisions, especially before or after a deadly force scenario.

In the interview, Hall often circled back to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1989 decision, Graham v. Connor, which decided a police officer’s decision to use force should rely on an expectation of “reasonableness.” But, he said, “that’s a low bar.” The “bar” of policy that directs an officer to act and how to act must be a lot higher, he said.

Hall has never been involved in a police shooting, but he has investigated more than 50 of them. Hall said he is used to releasing body -camera footage within a week or two of a police shooting and intends to be “as transparent as possible” following a use -of -force incident.

“There is always room for improvement,” he said about police shootings. “We should look at every incident with an eye to do better.”

Attempting to bring change to Spokane also brings Hall closer to his native roots as a member of the Colville tribe, which was incorporated into Monday’s ceremony. A family member of Hall’s gave a speech in his Native language and sang a ceremonial song. Once it was over, tribal members embraced Hall and congratulated him on his new position.

His uncle, Mike Hall – who is also a tribal member – said he believes his nephew has “got a lot of knowledge to be able to help,” making him great addition to Spokane. The new chief’s presence makes him feel more comfortable visiting the city, too.

Spokane inherently affects the reservation, he said. He wants to see the “culture” change in the city under his nephew’s leadership and hopes to visit him more often.

“I went over and saw him when he was in Tucson. I got to see some of the work that he has done … I thought, ‘Man, you got to be smart to be able to tackle what he’s been going through,’ ” Mike Hall said. “Tucson, it’s a good place, but it’s no different.”

Hall said much of the same things about the two cities while fielding questions from the media after Monday’s ceremony, which he believes will make him a better leader.

“What you see here in Spokane, coming off of the freeway or in other parts of the downtown, it’s very similar,” Hall said. “In fact, if you just didn’t know where you were at, you would think you were in the same city.”

No one has quite “cracked the nut” of the fentanyl crisis yet, Hall said, which has claimed hundreds of lives in Spokane in the last two years. That problem, along with homelessness, is something Hall wants to tackle as the new chief.

“We’re going to need a little bit of latitude and time to figure this out with the community,” Hall said. “I’m willing to listen to the entire community – the business community, the social service provider community, the nonprofits, the public, the government – we all have to address this together … because these are all systems that are working on the same problem. We might as well try and use the systems together.”

In the meantime, Hall plans to get to know the police department as much as possible. A struggle for any outside police chief is not knowing the history of a department and this means doing a “lot of listening” and cultivating relationships, he said.

Among the concerns people brought to Hall, community inclusion with the police department is one of them, he said, adding that residents want to feel included, and the more they are, the more they trust police and can help with safety efforts.

“It’s not nearly as close as they want to be. It sounds like they want to be closer to the police, but it just hasn’t happened yet,” he said. “That’s a good way for me to start.”

While Monday was Hall’s official first day, he said the process of change will take time. He’s still waiting for his official Spokane police uniform, and he noted he didn’t have a desire to go anywhere else.

“This will be my last job in my career. This is where I plan to stay.”