SPOKANE, Wash. — Funding for Spokane’s volunteer-led group known as C.O.P.S is up in the air.
The scattered C.O.P.S Shops have helped with fingerprinting, victim advocacy, block watch, and IDs for missing kids in the city for more than 30 years.
Monday night, funding for the organization was brought up in a Spokane City Council Meeting.
The organization’s current contract with the city expires at the end of this year. The yearly cost under that contract was nearly $470,000.
The resolution was indefinitely deferred after some heated debate in the council.
“I did see a lot of them working with the community. I’d take my kids there also, but after COVID, I just haven’t seen anything,” said Lili Navarrete, Spokane City Councilmember for District 2.
“If what we’re saying is we want to kill the contract with C.O.P.S, we should just say that,” said District 1 Councilmember Michael Cathcart. “That’s clearly the message I’m receiving from the other side of the seventh floor.”
“We really haven’t heard from our police chief on how he sees C.O.P.S being integrated into whatever his policing model is,” said City Council President Betsy Wilkerson.