A state arbitrator ruled this week that the city may continue to use its Neighbors on Watch volunteers to scan for stolen vehicles and dismissed a union grievance.
The Vancouver Police Guild had filed a grievance with the state in late summer alleging that the city was violating its contract with the union by allowing NOW volunteers to operate automatic license plate scanners mounted on city-owned trucks.
The state arbitrator ruling in the city’s favor came just days after the state Public Employee Relations Commission returned a decision that Vancouver police administrators violated law by passing over guild President Ryan Martin for a special assignment. The city says it will appeal that ruling.
NOW volunteers began using the scanners in August after the city won $60,000 in grant money to buy the readers. The readers automatically scan any letters and numbers configured like a license plate and then check the combination against a database of stolen vehicles. If a plate comes up as a hit, the information is passed to uniformed officers, who then deal with apprehension or recovery.
The union had argued that having volunteers use the scanners violated its contractual agreements with the city.
But in a decision issued on Dec. 27, state labor arbitrator Howell Lankford said the city did not violate the police guild’s contract.
“I cannot conclude that the identification of possibly stolen vehicles was ever exclusively guild work,” he wrote, and later in the six-page ruling, continued, “When we turn to the past practice provision of the contract, the guild fares no better: the record simply does not show an established practice of entrusting the preliminary identification of stolen vehicles to sworn officers.”
The arbitrator assigned the Vancouver Police Guild full responsibility for arbitrator fees and expenses of $3,150.
City Manger Eric Holmes expressed his pleasure in the decision this week.
“It affirms not only our ability to continue expanding our … Neighbors On Watch program and allow our officers to focus on higher-level policing options,” Holmes said. “But it also helps our approach of increasing the use of volunteers. It bolsters it as legitimate function across other levels of the city.”
Martin said the ruling was too new for him to say if the union would choose to appeal through the courts.
He said the guild thinks NOW is a “great program,” but he worries about the safety of civilians among potentially dangerous car thieves.
Martin also said that he hopes that Chief Cliff Cook will meet with the NOW director and the guild to set boundaries for the volunteers.
“Where we have to draw the line is there have to be clearly established guidelines as to what they can or cannot do,” he said. “The solution is again sitting down with the guild.”
