Today's headlines:
- Body camera recordings from the Spokane Sheriff’s Office are now going to cost public records requesters. The County is trying to recoup the cost of redacting sensitive information.
- The Spokane Police Department partners with Mujeres in Action to build trust with domestic violence survivors. It's granting the nonprofit $120,000 as it dips into reserves to replace its aging fleet.
- North Idaho's Lakeland School District parts with its superintendent.
- MultiCare is creating a training clinic in Spokane to combat the doctor shortage in the Inland Northwest.
- West Plains residents will get more access to safe water as PFAS clean up intensifies.
- Washington public lands agencies are cutting services as they prepare for reduced budgets this year.
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Body camera recordings from the Spokane Sheriff’s Office are now going to cost you.
SPR’s Eliza Billingham reports.
Commissioners decided unanimously on Tuesday to impose a fee on public records requests for body cam footage. The goal is to partially recoup the cost of redacting sensitive information from police recordings.
The state mandates certain redactions and allows local jurisdictions to create the fee if they so wish. Many cities and counties across Washington already have.
The Spokane sheriff’s office says redaction typically costs 78 cents per minute—which they will now pass on to public records requesters.
That’s 78 cents per minute worked. So if a ten minute video took 60 minutes to redact, the requester would need to pay 78 cents for each of those 60 minutes–or about $47.
Jim Leighty with the Washington Coalition for Police Accountability testified against the fee during Tuesday’s hearing.
LEIGHTY: “The Public Records Office is already funded by taxpayers, including the staff responsible for reviewing and redacting these recordings. Implementing additional fees for the same work effectively asks the public to pay twice, once through taxes and again through direct charges.”
If the purpose is simply recovering cost, Leighty also wondered whether fees would be adjusted if multiple people requested the same recording.
The fee the county imposed is a flat cost, and commissioners didn’t discuss adjusting the fee per number of requesters.
But people in the recordings will be able to get the footage for free, and anyone who is able to visit the sheriff’s office in person will be able to watch redacted footage at no cost.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
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The Spokane Police Department is trying to earn the trust of Latino community members and domestic violence survivors through a new partnership with Mujeres in Action.
The law enforcement agency is granting the nonprofit $120,000 for a year of brainstorming trauma-informed, culturally-sensitive policy changes and education programs.
The first step, the nonprofit says, is to assure domestic violence survivors that local police will not work with immigration officers
City Council approved the grant 6-1. Councilmember Paul Dillon was one of the supporters.
DILLON: “I am just curious also, going forward, what the bigger picture looks like for just the role of SPD and domestic violence. We did have the domestic violence unit, but that was folded into major crimes.”
Councilmember Michael Cathcart expressed his admiration for Mujeres in Action but voted against a slate of spending that is coming out of police reserves, both for this grant and for new vehicles.
CATHCART: “We have limited reserves and we've been spending these reserves down substantially in my six years on this council.”
Cathcart said the city should be especially careful around spending, since setting up the new 9-1-1 call center is putting unprecedented stress on Spokane’s public safety funding.
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The Lakeland School Board has put Superintendent Rusty Taylor on administrative leave.
Idaho Education News reports the governing board sent an email to the community this week acknowledging the move, but not explaining it.
The publication says the board fired Taylor during its meeting Monday night. He was hired last spring. The story quotes the board’s chair as saying several issues contributed to the decision to remove Taylor, calling the pairing a ‘bad fit.’
Assistant Superintendent Jake Massey has been appointed as the interim replacement.
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MultiCare is adding to Spokane’s doctor training capacity.
Yesterday, the provider cut the ribbon on a new clinic that will serve the public, but also train new internal medicine physicians, beginning next summer.
Rachel Safran: “We really are dedicated to increasing access for the community, which means they can start seeing us for care in the next two weeks. The only way that is sustainable is if we have future physicians that will continue to grow that clinic.”
Dr. Rachel Safran is one of four MultiCare physicians who will see patients at the clinic, beginning April 6. The facility is in a MultiCare building adjacent to Deaconess Hospital.
Beginning next summer, those four doctors will supervise six new residents who will begin a three-year training program. Ultimately, the program will admit eight new doctors a year.
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West Plains residents are going to get more access to clean water as local jurisdictions set up a PFAS clean up plan.
The Department of Ecology identified Spokane city, Spokane County, and the airport as "potentially liable parties” for PFAS contamination on the western side of the county.
They’re now responsible for figuring out and dealing with the unknown extent of that contamination.
The first steps of their plan are still waiting for final approval from Ecology.
But county planning director Kyle Twohig says it includes expanding the Garden Springs filling station so residents can get water at scale for livestock or outdoor use.
The jurisdictions will also provide countertop filters so residents can have safe water all around their house.
He says residents won’t have to test their well for PFAS before they can access the safety precautions.
TWOHIG: “These will be made available to folks regardless of whether they've had a test—regardless of whether they can prove their contamination. If they're in the area and they're on a well, we're going to get them clean water.”
The plan also calls for a team of experts to test more than 900 vulnerable wells. The data they collect will help create a long-term clean up plan.
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Public lands agencies across Washington state are preparing for reduced budgets this year. Erik Neumann from Oregon Public Broadcasting reports.
The budget cuts will affect Washington’s three public lands agencies: Department of Natural Resources, State Parks and Department of Fish and Wildlife.
At DNR, around 19 recreation sites are expected to either close or get less maintenance. Michael Kelly is DNR’s communications director.
Michael Kelly: "The recreation sites don’t maintain themselves. If you can’t maintain them, they get further degraded by the use and then they become safety risks."
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will hold off on hiring 11 officers. And, State Parks is still assessing what the budget cuts will mean for them.
Public lands agencies were just one category of cuts as the Washington legislature tried to address the state’s multibillion dollar deficit this year.
Governor Bob Ferguson has until early April to sign the budget into law.
I'm Erik Neumann reporting.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick and Erik Neumann.
Doug Nadvornick hosted and produced the show. Eliza Billingham provided digital support.
