Ombuds office: June 11 protest response changed from monitoring to enforcement and produced 26 recommendations

At its July 21 meeting, the Spokane Office of Police Ombuds presented a closing report on the June 11, 2025 protest at the federal immigration office that concluded the city's response evolved from cautious monitoring to active crowd movement and dispersal, and proposed 26 recommendations to reduce confusion and improve after-action review.

The report, delivered by Bart Logue and summarized by Deputy Police Ombuds George Perez Velez, found that command initially delayed responding to a federal request while it evaluated whether local action would amount to assisting federal immigration enforcement under the Keep Washington Working Act. Later, command concluded that blocked exits, obstructed vehicles and pedestrian interference created an independent local public-safety basis to act, a shift that coincided with police lines, pepper-ball munitions and smoke being used and with federal personnel and detainees leaving the building.

'Both facts matter and neither should be minimized,' Perez Velez said, arguing the report holds the department's legal analysis and the public's perception together. The report documents at least 54 distinct oral announcements over roughly 80 minutes and cites operational complications caused by crowd density, a nearby stadium event that released about 1,800 people, and multiple assisting agencies.

The 26 recommendations are grouped into five categories: (1) mission, facilitation and command (including an immigration-enforcement response protocol and documented mission statements); (2) communication, dispersal, force and care (layered communications plans, standardized dispersal orders, and medical/decontamination planning); (3) documentation and review (an event-wide munitions log, event documentation team, and body-worn camera procedures); (4) venues, mutual aid, arrests and property (early venue contacts, mutual-aid briefings, visible agency identification, and clear property/collection-point procedures); and (5) training, unmanned aerial systems safeguards and integration into a single crowd-management package.

The report highlights gaps that complicated review: fragmented records across dispatch (CAD), body-worn video and after-action files; inadequate event-level logs tying force uses to approvals, locations and recordings; and inconsistent identification of outside agencies at the time of arrest. It recommends that SPD create an event-specific documentation protocol and a practical method for reviewing large volumes of video and force reports.

Chief Hall, who addressed commissioners after the briefing, thanked the OPO staff and said the department would treat the recommendations as opportunities for learning. 'We are a learning organization,' the chief said, and the department will 'accept feedback' and work to implement improvements.

Next steps identified at the meeting included the commission's formal vote to recommend the report's 26 recommendations to the department and further staff work to prioritize follow-up actions and reporting. The OPO report itself notes it cannot determine criminal charges or make determinations about individual officer compliance because of legal and bargaining limits on its jurisdiction and authority.

The commission discussion and staff answers also focused on operational details the report flagged: how CAD and dispatch logs were used as real-time records, how mutual-aid responders are briefed under SPD command, and how dynamic takedowns and other uses of force should be classified and routed into supervisory review when they carry higher risk of injury.

The commission voted to recommend all 26 recommendations and instructed staff to coordinate follow-up. The full OPO closing report contains a detailed chronology, complaint themes, policy analysis and the full text for each recommendation.