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Spokane Training Bulletin...

surfj9009

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Well, after addressing city council and providing them, the Chief of Police, and the city attorney with copies of State vs. Casad, and all of the training bulletins issued in WA, I decided it was about time to call the Chief and set up an appointment to discuss the issue yesterday.

Her secretary asked me what it was in regards to and I told her "a training directive to inform the officers about the legality of OC", and she said, "It has already been done".

:shock::DShock and awe in my head right now. So I asked her, "Could you forward me a copy?" and she said sure......

So today I got this....


Hi Jason,

Apparently, I was mistaken about the training bulletin. It has been crafted and is waiting for approval from city legal. I will send it to you once it is released.

Thank you.


Carla Stamatoplos

Administrative Secretary/Chief Kirkpatrick
Spokane Police Department



So this is good news, as long as she follows through and it has really been addressed finally. I sent a nice letter back to her and so now I will just have to keep on her gently about it.

But.....between this AND the changes to the Spokane Municipal Code regarding "Emergency Orders" that Fetch has spearheaded, we (I really hope) may be looking at a serious victory on two fronts over here in Spokane.:celebrateI am pretty excited by this communication from the department, but I wont get my hopes up too much. I'll believe it when I see it.

Now if we can just get the ranges and gun clubs in line......:cuss:

ETA: Please everybody, don't start emailing her or calling her about it. Let's not be a pain in her ass, otherwise she may be reserved about releasing it to me when it is ready. Let's just let it run it's course. Thanks
 

David.Car

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I have found Kirkpatrick to be a very nice person. She frankly is a very good Chief for here in spokane and has ties into almost everything.

The fact that this has taken this long is the only surprise she has had for me. This is good news indeed.
 

surfj9009

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David.Car wrote:
I have found Kirkpatrick to be a very nice person. She frankly is a very good Chief for here in spokane and has ties into almost everything.

The fact that this has taken this long is the only surprise she has had for me. This is good news indeed.

Well, I don't know that anybody has even brought it up to here until about 2-3 months ago.
I was able to get the same materials to the President of the Police Guild through a friend, but i am not sure if that had any influence or not.

I believe there was another prominent and well respected member on the forum here who has contacted the department about it, with regards to a specific incident a while back.

Hopefully it was just a matter of creating enough buzz in a short amount of time to make them want to get it done.

We will see....;)
 

surfj9009

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Update: email sent to her to follow up, she said it is still waiting approval from City legal, but she did not forget about me.

Tick, tick, tick, tick......
 

surfj9009

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Shy_Panda wrote:
Still waiting?
Yep. I wrote her again last week, emphasizing that I am a bit surprised that such an important public safety issue that many officers are confused about has still not been addressed. I also asked for an appointment to speak with the chief about it but apperently she did not want to indulge my request. Her response was limited and as follows:

"The training bulletin is still at City Legal for review. I checked with our Training Administrator and as soon as City Legal has finalized it, it will be sent out to all police, and available to the public. "

That was it.
So I am thinking about addressing city council about it again during open forum, if anybody else would like to join me to speak let me know via PM and we can figure out a good date. There is always somebody at the council meetings from the city legal department so i could address them up front about it, and make my concerns made apparent to the city council, yet again, just in case there are problems down the road.

Or I could just be patient still and wait it out, but damn, the chief has already done one of these in Federal Way.

i dunno, what do you guys think?
 

Shy_Panda

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Sounds like city legal is draging their feet intentionally. I don't know if it is a good idea to continue pushing the issue through her or through city council. It seems like the issue needs to be addressed with city legal and if that doesn't work revert back to the city council... I am just aprehensive about them due to their general ineffectiveness and all the corruption that surrounds their chamber. I don't know though, I have done relatively little in the way of ensuring that they are aware that OC is legal so it is really your call as to what you want to do. I am back down in pullman so yet again I am of little help up in spokane. If you need something however it is only an hour and a half drive... just keep in mind gas prices for a poor college student.
 

t3rmin

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I've got an appointment myself with the Centralia city attorney and police chief tomorrow. After emails and letters and phone calls fell on deaf ears, I came to the same conclusion you did: do it in person.

I'm fighting a prohibition on carry in city parks. Any suggestions on materials to bring? I plan to have the relevant RCWs, the city code in question, OC pamplets, and police training bulletins. Although this fight doesn't really involve OC, so I'll leave that for another day unless it comes up.

One thing I really want to do is avoid being drawn in to a discussion on the merits of the law and carrying. This is about obeying state preemption. My opinion and their opinions aren't germane. Here is the law, sir/madam, will you follow it?
 

Trigger Dr

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I would remind them that they expect us to be good little boys and girls and follow the LAW. I would expect the same from them.
 

surfj9009

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Trigger Dr wrote:
I would remind them that they expect us to be good little boys and girls and follow the LAW. I would expect the same from them.
+1

State premption is state premption. Tell them you will follow the law, and if they arrest you in violation of state law, then they can resolve it in court with you, unless they just want to fix their errors and be done right then and there
 

surfj9009

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Trigger Dr wrote:
I would remind them that they expect us to be good little boys and girls and follow the LAW. I would expect the same from them.
+1

State premption is state premption. Tell them you will follow the law, and if they arrest you in violation of state law, then they can resolve it in court with you, unless they just want to fix their errors and be done right then and there
 

just_a_car

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If you want them to do it quickly, make it sound like it's in their best interest (not your's) to fix this.

In other words, warn them that having signage like that that's preempted and repealed could result in illegal detainment, arrest and/or citation by an unaware officer and could result in extensive legal costs to the city that could be avoided by simply painting over the preempted and repealed part of the sign and bringing their code in-line with state law.
 

t3rmin

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Success. Mostly.

They're going to submit a recommendation to fix the law to the city council. The police chief and city attorney weren't thrilled to be having the discussion, but they eventually did agree and were friendly by the time we wrapped it up. I think they were expecting a wacko camo-wearing contrarian gunnie to show up, but what they got was a friendly, prepared, respectful (but firm) young man.

Unfortunately they were also quite pleased to announce they'd be submitting a plan to ban discharge (we don't currently have an ordinance), even in the rural outlying areas of the city's control. While state law does allow them to do this, I'd like to see if I can convince the city council to vote it down. There are many areas on the outskirts where people can and do shoot without endangering or bothering anyone else.

So I have my next project.

Good luck in Spokane!
 
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