Vancouver police officers have been told not to make arrests or issue citations for a number of misdemeanors — including shoplifting and public drug use — and the city manager says this will allow the legal system to focus on prosecuting crimes such as domestic violence

Paul Valencia
Clark County Today

The memorandum that restricts Vancouver police from making arrests or issuing citations on a number of misdemeanor crimes was made in an effort to “prioritize cases with the greatest impact on safety,” according to City Manager Lon Pluckhahn.

Lon Pluckhahn

The city has a shortage of defense attorneys, Pluckhahn noted. That has led to the dismissal of more than 50 cases. Pluckhahn emphasized that 10 of those dismissed cases involved domestic violence charges that included assault, stalking, harassment, and/or no-contact order violations.

“While we have the ability to re-file those cases, I am absolutely confident that the community would not want those types of cases dismissed for lack of an attorney because attorneys were assigned to lower-level offenses,” Pluckhahn said.

Last week, Vancouver Police Chief Troy Price sent a memorandum to the city’s officers explaining that the city attorney had asked the department to stop making arrests for a number of crimes, including shoplifting, public drug use, trespassing, and more. The Vancouver Police Officers Guild released a statement disagreeing with that directive, and the president of the guild gave a follow-up interview to Clark County Today.

On Wednesday afternoon, Pluckhahn gave the city’s response by answering questions from Clark County Today via email.

“Vancouver, like other cities, is experiencing a shortage of public defenders,” Pluckhahn said.

A case is put into the system in order it is received, not based on the severity of a crime.

“To ensure there are enough available attorneys for crimes involving victims and other community safety crimes such as domestic violence assault and driving while intoxicated, a protocol has been put in place to stem the number of misdemeanor cases that are being cited into court,” Pluckhahn said. He added that this is a way of taking measures to avoid contributing to the bottleneck of misdemeanor cases “clogging the courts.”

The misdemeanors listed in the memorandum can still be referred to the City Attorney’s office for a charging decision.

“Our community expects and deserves safety,” Pluckhahn said. “This protocol allows us to prioritize cases with the greatest impact on safety. It is simply unacceptable for a domestic violence case to be dismissed for lack of an attorney while a misdemeanor for low-level theft or being in the park after hours has an attorney because it was entered into the system first.”

Pluckhahn also wanted to correct an assertion that this is a budget issue. This comes from a lack of public defenders.

City leaders back the blue, he added.

“Vancouver’s recent history should indicate strong support for enhancing law enforcement. The Council and City Manager brought Proposition 5 to the voters (Police Services Levy that was approved), supported the efforts of the Office of the Chief to qualify for the new police hiring grant program, and have included a potential sales tax for hiring even more officers in the draft budget proposals. This clearly indicates the City’s support for keeping the public safe.”

Still, the president of the police guild, Jeff Anaya, said rank-and-file officers are upset with the memorandum. They say it will make Vancouver less safe if they cannot do their jobs effectively. Anaya said residents can voice their concerns with the city council.

Pluckhahn said that he is not sure if, or when, this subject will come up on the agenda at a city council meeting.

“If the Council requests a briefing as part of its regular agenda, staff will provide one,” Pluckhahn said.

Earlier this week, Bart Hansen, a city councilor, said he was unaware of the police chief’s memorandum to the officers until the guild’s press release on Tuesday.

Pluckhahn said there have been talks with the appropriate parties, but the police guild’s statement might have been issued before all were informed.

“This is an issue the City Attorney, in consultation with the City Manager, has been discussing for some time. The City Manager was briefing Council members as part of scheduled check-ins, but the Guild issued a press release before those were completed,” Pluckhahn said. “In the past, the City Council has taken several actions to support managing public defender caseloads, such as adopting a case weighting system. This is a continuation of that work.”