SPOKANE — The Spokane police chief’s communications with local business leaders, which some activists say amounted to a shadow effort to undermine police reforms and hurt political opponents, are likely to be the subject of an independent investigation launched by the City Council.
The Spokane City Council will first consider launching an outside investigation during a committee meeting Monday, the Inlander first reported Tuesday.
In an unpublished draft agenda obtained by The Spokesman-Review, a resolution sponsored by Council President Breean Beggs, Councilwoman Lori Kinnear and Councilwoman Betsy Wilkerson says that a report released last year identified “unusual and concerning communications” between Meidl and local business leaders.
In December, the Office of the Police Ombudsman released a report detailing the aftermath of a 2020 homicide in Browne’s Addition and a subsequent confrontation between police and Wilkerson over whether Wilkerson would release surveillance footage without a warrant.
Though not the report’s initial focus, Meidl’s communications with local business leaders, particularly Chud Wendle, raised concerns, among some council members.
Since 2021, Wendle, who is active in local politics and has been sharply critical of Wilkerson and other left-leaning council members, and Meidl emailed each other “hundreds, if not thousands” of times, according to the ombudsman report. Meidl had reportedly provided Wendle information about cases and suspects, had special reports compiled and shared information for “lobbying purposes.”
Though the Office of the Police Ombudsman’s report identified several areas of concern, the office is not authorized to investigate the city’s chief of police or decide whether policy was violated, Beggs said in an interview.
As news of the Office of the Police Ombudsman’s report began to spread, a number of local activist organizations began to call for Meidl’s resignation last month, and, in lieu of that, called on the Spokane City Council to investigate his actions. Meidl responded, saying he was simply working to support a group of engaged community leaders trying to combat crime downtown, and refused to step down.
In an interview at the time, Meidl argued that his communications with Wendle were not philosophically different from those he had with Spokane NAACP President Kurtis Robinson and Spokane Human Rights Commission Chair Anwar Peace, who were among activists who called for Meidl’s resignation.
“Kurtis and Anwar have been recipients of that relationship as well,” he said at the time. “So it seems to me that they want that relationship unless I’m sharing things they don’t want me to share.”
Meidl could not be immediately reached Tuesday for this story.
Rather than lead the investigation themselves, Beggs said he, Kinnear and Wilkerson proposed an independent investigation to prevent accusations of political bias.
“When there are allegations with some substance behind them — and I’m not prejudging the results of this — then let’s get somebody independent to look at it,” Beggs said.
The proposal “requests” that Mayor Nadine Woodward or her administration select an investigator.
If advanced in coming weeks by the City Council, the resolution that will first be heard Monday calls for an outside investigator or special counsel to be hired by the end of May with a final report due by the end of August.
