Terry Mangan's Position Of Chief Of The Spokane Police Department

During the spring of 1987, Terry Mangan was offered the position of Chief of the Spokane Police Department (Sheingold, n.d.). Terry Novak, the city manager at the time, wanted someone outside of the agency to initiate change, beings how Spokane’s officers were complacent with their duties and objectives. Mangan’s first goal was to address the needs of the officers, who had substandard equipment and facilities (Cordner, 2016, p. 482). Mangan made the statement that “It became very evident to me that we weren’t going to go any place in this department with any community efforts unless we addressed some real fundamental needs. When I came here… people were working out of a basement with steam pipes overhead, World War II surplus lockers… and old, smelly

Lowest staff level in the state for a city of this size. You can’t tell people their job is important unless you address their [basic] needs. So, we focused internally on getting them the stuff and the equipment and the working conditions that would say, ‘you are important.’ (Cordner, 2016, p. 482). To achieve this objective, Mangan utilized volunteers to help alleviate some of the officer’s duties, which in turn created revenue that could be utilized to obtain better equipment and functioning facilities. Next on Mangan’s agenda was to get the community involved with the police and vice versa. He attended over 400 meetings and spoke of the need to integrate the community with policing. He spoke directly and frankly with the community. He let them know that money was an issue and that he needed their help to better the department and their communities. Mangan them proceeded to get a bond passed for funds to achieve upgrades. After the bond passed, he had the support of the community and his department, even being an outsider. Next was his goal of structural change. He observed the department and hand-picked natural leaders to create a think tank of people to help brainstorm