The year is off to a violent start. Over two weeks, Spokane law enforcement has shot four people — killing three and seriously injuring one. The number is equal to the total number of police shootings with injury or death in 2023. Nine people were shot by police in 2022. "These situations are tragic for everyone involved," Mayor Lisa Brown said in a statement Monday night, adding that she has been in steady communication with interim Police Chief Justin Lundgren and that the city is "committed to transparency in the process of reviewing these shootings." On Jan. 30, deputies with the Spokane County Sheriff's Office shot and killed a man who they say swung an ax at them in north Spokane. One day later, nine Spokane police officers shot and killed a man in Spokane's Cliff/Cannon Neighborhood. Police say he pointed a gun at them. On Feb. 12, police shot and killed a man in a home near Northtown Mall who reportedly shot a woman while she was trying to call 911. Later that day, police shot a man who had reportedly been walking around downtown threatening people with a knife. The man was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. (NATE SANFORD)
IDAHO: YOU GUYS FIGURE IT OUT
In recent months, both Kootenai County Assessor Béla Kovacs and Treasurer Steve Matheson have asked the Idaho State Tax Commission to investigate what exactly is going wrong as their offices work each year to complete full and accurate tax roles by their statutory deadlines. The state tax commission did not open an investigation into Kootenai's tax system after Kovacs' earlier request, and this month, they also dismissed Matheson's complaint, suggesting that the county hire a consultant to help them streamline their processes. Both complaints mentioned an aging, dysfunctional computer system, and communication failures occurring at various stages of the assessment process that determines how much each property owner owes in taxes. "Fundamentally, the issues that Kootenai County [has] brought to the Tax Commission's attention are matters of administrative and management discretion. It would not be appropriate for the Tax Commission to involve itself with these issues," a Feb. 2 letter from the commission states. Kovacs emailed the Inlander to make sure we knew the commission "essentially found no merit" in Matheson's complaint, and to note, "It was much to do about nothing." He says he plans to issue a lengthier response. (SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL)
BROKEN CROSSINGS
A report from a statewide transportation policy group has found that 41% of people stopped for jaywalking in Washington state are homeless. The analysis by the Seattle-based Transportation Choices Coalition looked at over 10,000 records of stops and citations obtained from law enforcement, dispatch agencies and the courts from 2000 to 2023. Numerous studies have shown that jaywalking is often done out of necessity. A 2014 study by the Federal Highway Administration, which looked at more than 70,000 pedestrian crossings, predicted with 90% accuracy whether or not pedestrians would cross mid-block, a decision walkers generally made based on the distance between crosswalks or the location of bus stops. Studies from 2014 and 2018, published in the scholarly journal Transportation Research Record, found that motorists yield to pedestrians less than 20% of the time, a proportion that drops even more on streets with higher speeds. According to a recent Spokesman article, Spokane police recorded 196 instances of a motorist hitting a pedestrian last year, with nine fatalities. Spokane's anti-jaywalking laws first went into effect in 1918, just as cars were making American roads more dangerous. But instead of placing the responsibility on the drivers, the rules placed blame on pedestrians, or "jays," a slur against people who weren't sophisticated or uneducated people. (NICHOLAS DESHAIS)
TRAIL STORIES
Two Gonzaga University professors, Katey Roden and Greg Gordon, have received a second grant for their project Finding Our Way — a digital mapping project documenting the history of Northeast Spokane. The $100,000 award comes from the National Endowment for the Humanities and more than triples their first grant from 2022. Roden and Gordon plan to build a website dedicated to telling the stories of the neighborhoods along the Children of the Sun Trail, which is being built alongside the North Spokane Corridor. There are also plans to install QR codes along the trail so folks have direct access to the Finding Our Way website. "It is an opportunity for the Spokane community to ensure that often overlooked communities have a place to access information about the place they call home," Roden said in a statement. Additionally, the pair plans to work with the Spokane Tribe to develop an "ethnobotanical discovery garden" at Wildhorse Park. (COLTON RASANEN) ♦
