Spokane police ombuds calls out media over misinformation about officer’s firing
(The Center Square) – Spokane Police Ombuds Bart Logue took time on Tuesday to correct a slew of misinformation circulating in recent articles that suggest a police officer was fired because of a political sticker.
His correction followed comments from Anwar Peace, chair of the Spokane Human Rights Commission, during a meeting of the Police Ombuds Commission. Peace took the time to criticize the Spokane Police Department for the sticker’s statement, citing policies against this.
Last month, the Office of the Police Ombuds released a report following the officer’s termination in May. Several media outlets cited the closing report and its discussion around the “Let’s Go Brandon” sticker as a contributor to the termination, despite being released months later.
Logue attributed the misinformation to policies prohibiting the OPO from disclosing significant portions of information. He vouched for modifying the restrictions for the sake of transparency and reporting.
“As an example this week of the limitations in our reporting, our report was used by our local media in regards to a story about an officer who was fired for placing a political sticker on their patrol car,” Logue said. “… then the misstatements continued to intensify.”
The OPO report followed an internal investigation by the Spokane Police Department that found the officer violated several policies. Logue pushed that the police chief fired the officer because he lied during the investigation, not because of the sticker.
Logue reaffirmed that OPO’s job is to write closing reports and make recommendations to SPD, not disciplinary actions. He also stated that the complaint didn’t originate from the OPO and that SPD’s Internal Affairs team did the investigation.
While OPO certified the investigation in January, the office was removed from the process until after the police chief decided to terminate the officer’s employment.
“The officer, though, was not terminated for the sticker placed on the patrol car,” Logue said. “They were terminated for false and misleading statements made during the investigation, and not a single media source I have read so far has got that detail correct.”
