(The Center Square) – Transcending jurisdictional and party lines, elected officials from Spokane County and the city of Spokane met Friday for an “unprecedented” meeting centered on disrupting the local drug trade.
Mary Kuney, chair of the Board of County Commissioners, said it had been years since they got together with the Spokane City Council. No one in the room could say with certainty when they last held a joint meeting — Friday was about rebuilding bridges and moving forward together.
The address included presentations from Sheriff John Nowels, Police Chief Kevin Hall, Medical Examiner Dr. Veena Singh and others on recent efforts. From multijurisdictional task forces to regional treatment projects, they laid out a multipronged response to Spokane’s opioid crisis.
“Our presence here today reflects a shared commitment to the health and well-being of our communities,” Council President Betsy Wilkerson said, opening the meeting. “Let’s cut to the chase: the opioid epidemic is a crisis that requires a unified response.”
The relationship between the city and the county has deteriorated in recent years. Both share challenges but often choose to tackle them on their own. The ordeal had led to inefficiencies and redundancies, but everyone set aside their differences on Friday for the best of the region.
Drug Enforcement
Hall said complex problems require complex solutions. As much as some may hope, one golden strategy won’t end the drug trade and opioid abuse tearing apart Spokane. Success will require compassion but also grit and manpower, which he and Nowels would like to bolster.
Last fall, Hall launched the Spokane Police Department’s CORE plan, focused on tackling crime and narcotic trafficking downtown. While initially intended as a short pilot, the program remains in place due to a need for more data, which Hall said reveals an alarming trend.
A small group is responsible for a disproportionate share of crime. Hall said that in the first month, SPD contacted 143 individuals who accounted for 2,192 arrests. Around 15% made up over 50% of the arrests. He compared the scene to a “living, breathing, social system.”
“If you spend enough time down there, you can see how it ebbs and flows. We want to disrupt that,” Hall said. “Disrupt the use of the narcotics. We want to disrupt the folks who are bringing the narcotics down. We want to disrupt the open-air drug markets that are occurring.”
Much like the overarching response, Hall said SPD relies on several approaches to drug enforcement. The CORE plan sits at the top, with a downtown emphasis following suit to rebuild relationships. Local service providers also help identify people who use the emergency system the most, and SPD then takes willing participants to treatment before taking enforcement actions.
The last branch of Hall’s strategy is SPD’s Tactical Operations Unit. That team deals directly with enforcement and has started several investigations from the CORE plan. While some are ongoing, Hall provided details on one case around the Ridpath Club Apartments.
The case led to multiple pending charges and officers seizing $110,000 in cash, 1 kilogram of methamphetamine, 453 grams of cocaine, 10,000 fentanyl pills and 150 grams in powder form.
“Unfortunately, Spokane County is the number one county listed as the source … for seizures outside the state of Washington,” Nowels said.” We should not be the distribution hub.”
Dispatches to drug-related calls have quadrupled in the last three years. Calls for naloxone, or Narcan, increased fivefold and fentanyl-related deaths almost doubled. Still, despite seizing more than 73,000 pills last year and other drugs, Nowels said staffing remains an issue.
“We have had 137 fentanyl-related overdose calls for service, which is 48.91% higher than this time last year,” he said. “We’re not trending in the right direction.”
Multijurisdictional task forces are manpower-intensive. Both agencies face limited staffing, so one of their biggest needs is to hire detectives and officers to handle narcotics investigations.
Overdose data
Singh recorded 352 drug-related deaths, making up around 5% of the total deaths countywide last year. She said fentanyl was detected in about 80% of accidental overdoses last year, but meth was right behind at 70%, with cocaine also common among many deaths.
Most overdose deaths occurred around the city of Spokane, with the highest concentration in the downtown area. Last year, much of the nation saw overdose deaths fall, sparking hope, except in Washington state, and Spokane wasn’t immune either, seeing an almost 17% rise.
Singh said many jurisdictions are starting to see overdose rates climb again, not just locally.
“We are still seeing an upward trend,” she said, pointing to data from January and February 2025 that show 40 to 45 deaths each month despite only logging 30 to 35 for each in 2024.
Opioid settlement funds
Justin Johnson, director of the county’s Community Services Department, said the opioid crisis arrived long before 2019. However, it wasn’t until then that the nation sued over the disaster.
Washington state will receive around $500 million in settlements from three opioid producers once all is said and done. While some of it has already made its way to Spokane, the county expects to receive around $27 million by 2038, with the city anticipating around $13.3 million.
Both municipalities are putting the money to work as another prong of the opioid response.
The county took a phased approach, devoting its resources to several projects as the city identified gaps in the legal and behavioral health system. Now, they are coming together on initiatives like Spokane Treatment & Recovery Services’ new sobering and triage center.
Johnson said that since opening the center in December, the provider has treated almost 350 people, with 80% referred to longer-term care. Another joint project expands access to services and treatment at the Spokane Regional Health District, with others in the works.
“We’re holding hands,” Johnson said regarding the city and county’s ventures.
One area where both municipalities hope to partner is expanding the Spokane Regional Crisis Stabilization Center to include 23-hour services, similar to STARS. Johnson and Deputy City Administrator Maggie Yates said it could be a third place between a jail and a hospital.
“I don’t think Justin is an idealist,” Yates said. “It’s very much within our grasp.”
