Small Town News

ML police services contract still under review with county

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The effort to have the Spokane County Sheriff's Office take over policing duties for the city of Medical Lake is moving ahead in the background and hopefully closer to reality.

"Nothing's new, the contract's at the county right now for their review," Medical Lake Mayor John Higgins said of the deal that would hopefully have familiar faces still on duty patrolling city streets.

Current members of the Medical Lake Police Department are taking their tests to see if they qualify to join the Sheriff's Office.

All five current officers are in the testing process. "We added a little extra money so they'd take the fifth guy," Higgins said.

There is no guarantee that they will make the jump to the Sheriff's Office because they all have to pass the test. Higgins said the testing is the same - or close to the same - as what they would go through when they became new officers.

The proposed contract would cost the city approximately $650,000 a year, saving about $206,000 annually over what the operation currently costs. The deal would also have two detectives work out of police headquarters.

Going to contracted services, something in discussion for over a year, recently accelerated when efforts to hire a new police chief stalled The biggest roadblock came over the inability of the city to offer an acceptable compensation package.

There had been some opposition to the idea but much of that seemed to disappear following a presentation by Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich during a July 21 council meeting.

Higgins said he hopes to hear back from the sheriff soon with word on where the process sits. It was hoped that the transition would be able to take place by October.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com

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© 2009 Cheney Free Press Cheney, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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