Grand Coulee may disband police department

It looks increasingly likely the Grand Coulee Police Department won’t exist for much longer. Instead, the city may contract with an outside entity for law enforcement within city limits — potentially the Soap Lake Police Department or the Grant County Sheriff’s Office — based on comments made at Tuesday night’s council meeting, and by outgoing interim police chief Levi Johnson in a phone call with The Star last week.

Johnson confirmed he had put in his notice earlier this month, and his last day with the department is next week.

Council members didn’t close off the option of Grand Coulee continuing to employ its own force, but the trajectory of officer retention makes it seem unlikely.

Johnson’s resignation will be the third the department has experienced since July. Another patrol officer begins extended family leave later this month, and the remaining two are applying to other departments. This includes one officer who started with GCPD last month and has been commuting from his Olympia home every week for his shifts.

Sgt. Dan Holland has also been on medical leave for months, with no expected return date. 

Combined with the anticipated loss of the law enforcement contract with the Bureau of Reclamation this spring, city leaders are grappling with what to do now.

Councilmember Tom Poplawski, whose committee will recommend next steps to the full council, characterized contracting out for police services as “a very viable option — but only an option.”

He, along with Mayor Ruth Dalton and newly sworn-in Councilmember Tim Snead, will present a proposed course of action at a future meeting.

Over the phone last week, Johnson said he was in support of contracting with Soap Lake or the county, and that he had been in conversation with Grant County Sheriff Joe Kriete and Soap Lake’s Chief Ryan Cox, whom Johnson described as a pretty good friend.

“I think he could really make a difference here as far as officers and trainings — get the place back to where it should’ve been a long time ago” Johnson said of Cox. “Soap Lake had a lot of issues he inherited six or seven years ago. He’s 180’ed it and he’s continuing to make it better.”

Johnson said if the force disbands, any remaining officers would probably be absorbed into the contracting agency, and could potentially remain assigned to the Grand Coulee area. He also said contracting with a larger jurisdiction means a supervisor would be on shift 24 hours a day, to provide oversight in dangerous situations like high-speed vehicle pursuits. 

Out of the five recent and expected upcoming resignations, Johnson is the only one turning in the badge in favor of civilian work. After this month, he’ll start as an investigator with Adult Protective Services, an agency within the state Department of Social and Health Services that investigates reports of abuse, neglect or exploitation of vulnerable adults.

“Just moving on,” Johnson said, when asked what was behind his resignation. “Doing what I want to do now.”