ProJourn lawyers help investigative reporter access to complaints lodged against Spokane Police Department Police Anti-Crime Team

InvestigateWest reporter Wilson Criscione submitted a request on March 29, 2022, to the Spokane Public Records Center for records between January 1, 2016, and March 29, 2022, relating to “any complaints lodged against members of the Spokane Police Department Police Anti-Crime Team (PACT).”

The Spokane Public Records Center did not provide any information despite follow-up emails from Mr. Criscione for almost a year. When the Spokane Public Records Center finally responded with relevant materials in early 2023 the information provided was not responsive to the request as it only contained a log of the complaints against members of PACT but it did not include the complaints themselves. Criscione promptly indicated that these materials were insufficient, and that the response should include documentation of the actual complaint.

A couple of months later, the Spokane Public Records Center sent an installment of the requested information relating to two officers of PACT, but Criscione knew that there were more complaints against other members of PACT that had not been provided.

Criscione reached out to ProJourn and was quickly put in touch with a team at DWT based out of Seattle. Within weeks, the law firm wrote and sent a letter to Spokane Deputy City Clerk, and all the complaints were released. The reporter is now perusing them as part of his investigation. The client wrote to the legal team:

“Thanks so much for your help with this. I’m fairly certain I’d be waiting a while longer for these records if not for the letter you put together.”

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