I'm Mark Wright, your total news coverage tonight, the serial killer task force is looking
for more detectives.
Find out why it doesn't want them to come from the state patrol.
I'm Mariam Ishimah, Spokane SWAT teams rated a suspected meth lab in East Spokane.
And don't call them, they'll call you.
We'll tell you about a proposed 911 system that warns you of danger.
This is total news coverage for Monday, March 9th.
This is KXLY-TV, ABC4, Spokane, Coeur d'Alene.
Now, from the largest broadcast news team in the Inland Northwest, this is total news
four at six.
Winner of the Emmy for best newscast.
Good evening.
It is understaffed, its workload is growing, and it needs more help.
But instead of using detectives from the state patrol, Spokane's serial killer task force
wants money from more officers.
Tonight authorities defend their strategy.
Total news four's Dave Meany has our report.
Right now all area law enforcement agencies have a hand in the serial killing investigation,
but only detectives from the city and county make up the task force.
An investigation as sensitive as this one has to be very carefully controlled, it has
to be very carefully managed.
So for now, the understaffed task force won't include experts from the Washington State
Patrol.
The state only acts in a support role, providing help with its high tech crime lab.
We give a lot of short term assistance.
State Patrol Captain Mike Dooby does consider himself an important part of the investigation.
I go to the meetings and things like that.
I'm not an official investigator or anything like that, but I do provide the support and
attend the meetings.
Instead of using state police, the city and county are looking to hire more detectives.
This will cost county taxpayers about $300,000 a year.
City taxpayers will dish out about $156,000 a year.
Braggdon says the state patrol just doesn't have the resources to be a part of the task
force.
What they have great difficulty providing as any agency is full time people.
Oh I have no doubt that our detectives are highly qualified.
In fact, we assist a lot of smaller counties with homicides, rapes, all those things.
So I feel very confident in our people's ability to get the job done.
Even if it can get the job done, the state patrol really isn't waiting to be invited
to join the task force.
The state patrol in this region only has four detectives and they have their own workload
and can't give the task force a long term commitment.
So for now both sides agree a support role is in the best interest of this investigation.
Mary Ann.
Thanks Dave.
Police say they have received close to 800 tips on these serial deaths.
If those tips increase, they will need even more help down the road.
One of the men overseeing the task force is now Spokane's acting chief of police, Roger
Braggdon.
We'll leave the department while the city conducts a nationwide search to replace retiring
chief Terry Mangan.
Mangan is starting the transition phase to his new job with the FBI.
Braggdon was appointed deputy chief last year and says he will apply for the top job.
Although Braggdon doesn't have the required four year degree, he does feel his experience
makes him qualified.
Braggdon has been with the police force since 1973.
Well chief Mangan says he might have changed the timing of his retirement if he knew there
would be a serial killer investigation.
He officially retires in July.
But Mangan will spend most of his time getting ready for that new job in the FBI's training
division in Quantico, Virginia.
He'll also continue to handle some duties here in Spokane.
Mangan says he hates to leave in the middle of this investigation, but he doesn't believe
that it will suffer.
I don't believe that the task force operations will be affected or interrupted by the transition
at all.
In fact, I think they'll be very strong and good continuity regardless of what happens
in the selection process for the new police chief.
Despite his new job, Mangan says he and his wife will keep a home here in Spokane.
Another Kehoe family member is in trouble with federal agents.
This time it's the father of Chevy and Shane Kehoe.
49 year old Kirby Kehoe was arrested Saturday in Springdale, just north of Spokane.
Now he faces possible federal explosives charges.
Agents say a tip led them to a storage locker filled with automatic weapons, hand grenade
components and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition.
Kehoe reportedly rented the locker under an alias.
Now agents also seized loaded weapons from Kehoe's truck and nearby ranch.
We are very interested in individuals such as this to determine exactly what is going
on with this individual independently and collectively with other individuals.
Agents were not allowed to tell us whether Kirby Kehoe is working in connection with
his two sons.
Last year, Chevy and Shane Kehoe were arrested after a highly publicized shootout with Ohio
State Troopers.
Now both brothers are doing time on felony counts.
SWAT and hazmat teams are searching through a suspected meth lab in East Spokane.
Police spent most of the day watching a home at East 2306 South Riverton.
In just the last couple of hours, they found meth lab chemicals in a stolen car parked
next to the house.
Some kind of pipe bomb was also found in the basement, but it's believed to be harmless.
Acting Police Chief Roger Bregdon says patrol officers working overnight led them to the
suspected lab.
It's been weeks now and they noticed some suspicious activity over the past few days
and then noticed what appears to be a ventilation pipe coming out of the basement, which is
fairly new and it's rather strange.
It's not a typical dryer vent type of thing.
Some of those officers had to be decontaminated.
Earlier today, a woman renting the home was arrested for an unrelated misdemeanor.
Two others have been questioned.
Spokane County law enforcement agencies got a look today at a new emergency warning system.
It's called Reverse 911.
You don't call it.
It calls you to warn you about danger in your neighborhood.
Don't you feel she's being stalked by somebody?
On a typical day, Spokane County's 911 center is a clearing house for about 1300 calls.
What is your zip code there, please?
500 are actual 911 calls.
Over 800 come from people reporting crimes.
But imagine if 911 could call you to warn you about, say, a wildfire.
My shop, my sculptures, everything.
Or maybe a flood, even a police standoff.
This is a test.
This is only a test message for Spokane.
All of this is possible using a new computer software system called Reverse 911.
I can give that emergency calling.
Many that makes it is pitching it to Spokane County, and many like what they see.
To locate Stanley on the map.
Well, it's got tremendous potential.
It can reach a lot of people in a very short period of time and can save a life or two.
It's certainly worth something like this.
Here's how Reverse 911 works.
Officials block out the area affected by the danger on a map.
Then they record a message.
And with the push of a button, your phone rings and you get the warning.
I don't know if they're alive or not.
Right now, something has to be really big before the public is warned over the emergency
broadcast service on TV and radio.
Supporters say the beauty of Reverse 911 is that even little things can be passed on to
people affected.
Whether it's burglary suspects or sex offenders or people who steal checks out of mailboxes.
If I had a problem in my neighborhood, I'd sure like to know about it.
Now emergency officials got their first good look at Reverse 911 today.
No word on whether they will purchase it.
The total software package costs about $53,000.
That might make some people feel more secure to know what's going on in their neighborhood.
Sometimes you feel like you'll have to ask.
Yeah.
And it's certainly a much more efficient way of notifying people as opposed to the EBS
or flyers or whatever the other methods are.
Yeah.
I totally support...