SPOKANE, Wash. – Spokane’s long-standing partnership with Community Oriented Police Services (COPS) is undergoing significant changes after more than 30 years. Ongoing contract discussions between the city and the nonprofit have ended without an agreement, leading to concerns about the future of neighborhood safety programs.
The city and COPS have been in contract negotiations for about four months.
City representative, Erin Hut, stated, “We’ve been going back and forth with C.O.P.S for about four months trying to seek a resolution on this contract. At this point, we needed to move forward and they did not meet those deadlines. So, we have withheld that funding and we’re going to look at new opportunities of what we can do with it.”…