Police relations back to normal - strained

Official relations between Coulee Dam and Grand Coulee police departments have returned to “status quo” after a meeting of mayors last week.

But Coulee Dam Mayor Bob Poch declined to characterize it as a “working relationship,” and Grand Coulee Mayor Ruth Dalton said “there may be” underlying tensions to address, “but that’s for another day.”

“In speaking with Mayor Bob Poch, we came to the agreement that mutual aid will continue as necessary,” Dalton said in a phone call Tuesday. “If they need a backup call, they will call for us, and us for them, and it will happen.”

Poch himself was not as forthcoming about those agreements, when asked about the July 22 meeting between him and Dalton.

“You’d have to ask [Chief] Paul [Bowden],” whether the de facto norm had been restored between the two forces, Poch said. “He’s in charge of the department. I’m not. From what I’ve seen and what has been said, everything is there. We have helped Grand Coulee in the meantime.”

The conflict over whether Coulee Dam could refuse to assist Grand Coulee units in the field became public when The Star obtained an email between the two chiefs from early July. Interim Grand Coulee Chief Levi Johnson questioned a rumor that Bowden had told his officers not to assist Grand Coulee units, which Bowden confirmed was “correct.”

In an interview Tuesday, Poch pushed back on the notion that there was an agreement to withdraw from in the first place, as he says nothing is written down.

“There is no mutual aid agreement as far as that goes,” he said. “There has never been a signed agreement.”

Though this appears to be true between these two jurisdictions, the 1985 Washington Mutual Aid Peace Officers Powers Act was written to dissolve barriers to jurisdictions assisting outside agencies on calls.

The unfolding conflict has become a study of contrasts in style, approach, and culture between two city halls and their PDs, which sit barely over two miles apart.

In Coulee Dam, the mayor and police chief have emphasized formal policies, legal requirements and liabilities. 

“There’s nothing that says we have to help each other out — there’s no law,” Bowden said in a July 16 phone call with The Star. “Our office, our department, is paid by Electric City and Coulee Dam. That’s where we get paid by, and those would be the areas that we’re working in.”

Up the hill, Grand Coulee’s mayor is emphasizing communication and setting aside differences for a common good. 

“The best thing to do is to speak with one another and see how we can correct this type of thinking,” Dalton said. “We’re all in this together, and it’s about the communities. You gotta put things aside, because it’s about the community.”

“Everything is workable,” she said. “That’s how I look at it.”

Grand Coulee Interim Chief Levi Johnson expressed similar sentiments in a phone call earlier this month. He went on to say he believes having one shared jurisdiction instead of fractured law enforcement territories “just makes sense.”

“If the communities could figure out a way to get along, figure out who’s gonna do what, who’s gonna pay what, and how we’re gonna make this work, it would make the officers’ lives better, and the cities would probably pay less in overtime,” Johnson said. “I think it would be a win-win for everybody. It’s going to take the leaders of the community to put it together.”

Asked whether it would matter what town a consolidated department chief worked for, the interim Grand Coulee chief was indifferent.

“I don’t really care about this title of chief,” Johnson said. “I’m going to do the best job I can. The main thing is to benefit everybody involved: the officers, the community, everybody.”

Poch said he has not had any constituents bring up consolidating police services, in light of the conflict this month. Dalton said she has heard some chatter and gotten a few questions, but that she and Poch had not discussed it in their one-on-one meeting.

“Like I say, first things first,” she said. “This is an age-old issue between these two departments. It has been going on for 50 years. The public needs to know there will be mutual aid between the two communities as needed.”

Johnson’s appointment as interim chief in May was for a six-month period, which ends right around Thanksgiving. On Tuesday, Dalton said she was not aware if the permanent position is currently being advertised.