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State investigative office describes operations, answers Spokane questions
Summary
The state Office of Independent Investigations (OII) reviewed its mission, staffing and limited jurisdiction, described how it responds to fatal officer-involved uses of force, and fielded questions about Spokane-area coverage and body-camera release policies.
Hector Castro, director of communications and community relations at the Office of Independent Investigations, told the Spokane Office of Police Ombudsman Commission on the evening of the meeting that OII was created by the state legislature in 2021 and began receiving notifications of law-enforcement deadly-force incidents in November 2022.
"By statute, law enforcement agencies are required to notify our agency when 1 of their officers is involved in the use of deadly force incident," Castro said, adding OII opened a prior-investigations program in July 2023 and started responding to active incidents in Region 1 on Dec. 1, 2024.
The agency is organized into six regions, Castro said, and will initially investigate only cases that result in a fatality. He said OII does not make charging recommendations; it completes an investigative report and delivers the file to the appropriate local prosecutor.
Anwar Peace, who identified himself during public comment as "a 24 year police accountability expert," described a December officer-involved shooting in Spokane that killed his…
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