Police mutual aid pact strained with department relations

If a Grand Coulee officer calls to request backup at the scene of a crime, they can’t count on Coulee Dam PD to respond, according to an email obtained by The Star.

In the email from Grand Coulee Interim Police Chief Levi Johnson to Coulee Dam Police Chief Paul Bowden on July 8, Johnson wrote, “It was brought to my attention, you told your officers they are not to assist Grand Coulee Units. I heard this from a couple of our officers. If this is true, I would like to hear it from you.”

The next day Bowden confirmed in his reply: “That is correct. I am in the process of drafting an official letter to Mayor Dalton,” Grand Coulee’s mayor.

The move points to soured relationships between the two departments — something members of both jurisdictions acknowledged in interviews this week — and raises questions about the safety impacts on officers as well as on the broader community when additional backup may be much more than a couple of miles away. 

When asked about that in a phone call Tuesday, Bowden softened his stance.

“Obviously, if it’s life or death, no matter what we say, we’re gonna go,” he said. “But other than that we’re just going to be working on our own areas, so to speak.”

“There’s nothing that says we have to help each other out,” Bowden added. “There’s no law.”

How things got to this point isn’t entirely clear. But it appears directly related to an incident in December 2023 when Bowden deployed a taser on a local man at North Dam Park. Johnson reported it as potential excessive use of force under the “duty to intervene” clause in the state’s Peace Officers Powers Act.

“The whole thing seemed sketchy to me,” Johnson said in a phone call Tuesday. “So I sent a letter to my boss, and then my boss — John Tufts at the time — did what he needed to do, and sent it to the state.”

According to the state’s Peace Officers Powers Act, police have a “duty to intervene” if they witness another officer engage in excessive force against another person. The law also requires them to report up the chain of command if they witness “any wrongdoing committed by another peace officer” or if they have a “good faith reasonable belief that another peace officer committed wrongdoing.”

The incident is under review by the Washington Criminal Justice Training Commission, though Bowden said he could not recall when he had received the email informing him. 

The Star made a public information request for related emails through Coulee Dam’s deputy clerk on Tuesday, but the record was not provided by press time. In Washington, public entities must fulfill public records requests within five business days, excluding the day of the request.

In the phone call, Bowden stood by his directive when pressed about whether it constituted retaliation against Grand Coulee. 

“I wouldn’t call it retaliation, but it’s just — if that’s their thinking on their report, we’re not going to be around them,” he said. “I shouldn’t have to worry about watching my back on doing our job.”

He also issued a warning to the reporter: “Be careful about what you’re putting in the paper — you’re not getting all the facts,” he said. “Articles get put out saying the wrong thing, it’s not gonna turn out well.”

He declined to provide further facts and said the two departments “have a lot more things to iron out.”

Neither Grand Coulee Mayor Dalton nor Coulee Dam Mayor Bob Poch agreed to comment for this story, both saying they had not gotten a chance to discuss the situation together. Poch is out of town and they won’t be meeting until he returns. 

A department canceling mutual aid is rare, according to Kathryn Dubois, a criminal justice professor at WSU who researches rural crime and justice.

“I’ve never heard of that, honestly,” she said. “I’m sure it happens, but I don’t know of any research on it. Most rural agencies, it’s a really lonely job. The more you can work with other agencies, the more you can feel like you have your people.”

Meanwhile, Johnson is navigating what it means for his department, where he has only been the interim chief for two months.

“I have no problem with my guys helping their guys, going down there helping [on calls], Johnson said. “I just don’t know if Bowden will extend an olive branch, so to speak. I’d like to see him change his mind. I really would.” 

“I’m hoping this isn’t the straw that breaks the camel’s back, but it might be.”