Parting Will Be Hard For Retiring Officer

SPOKANE - Dick Poole slips a cigarette between his lips, takes a puff and exhales as he walks into the Dead End Tavern.

"Hey Dick, how ya doin'?" says a man, tipping his dirty baseball cap as he shoots pool. "I didn't do it, Poole," says another man, laughing as he shakes his head and raises his hands into the air in mock surrender.

Poole turns toward the shadows behind the dancing clouds of cigarette smoke, smiles and nods hello. Toting a gun and wearing a silver badge, he immediately attracts the attention of those sitting in the dimly lit room.

Spending sunny afternoons in taverns and making small talk with prostitutes, barflies and the down-and-out is all in a day's work for Richard Poole. But after 20 years with the Spokane Police Department, the 50-year-old officer has decided to retire.

Saying goodbye won't be easy. Getting to know the people of a neighborhood, Poole says, has been one of the things he likes best about his job.

"These are my people," Poole says. "I enjoy being around them. That's why I don't want to be anything more than a street cop."

And Spokane's West First Avenue neighborhood and downtown are just where he wants to be.

"Not everybody out here is bad," Poole says. "You can't put yourself above or below other people."

Since 1971, he has patrolled the streets of Spokane, and most recently has been one of a handful of officers who regularly walk the West First Avenue neighborhood from noon to 8 p.m. Walking the beat has helped Poole make friends as well as arrests, according to some who know him.

"He knows everybody on the block," says Harry Boomer, a bartender at the Dead End Tavern. "He's a damn good friend. . . . He never gives anybody a hard time, but he gets hard-nosed when he needs to, and people know that. You don't mess with him."

A 35-year-old man leaning against the counter agrees. "Everybody in this bar's been arrested by him a half a dozen times," he says. "And he comes in here and laughs and jokes with everybody. It's a question of attitude."

In 1976, Poole ranked highly in a qualifying exam for a sergeant's position, but he didn't want to be considered for a promotion.

"It scared me," Poole says. "I don't want to be a sergeant. I'm happy on the streets."

Now that he's retiring, both his fellow officers and people on the street say he will be missed.

"He's a good cop," says police Cpl. Joe Machala, who has worked with Poole over the past two decades. "It doesn't matter if the guy just punched him in the nose. He'll treat him with respect. Not everyone does that."

"He'd rather talk to you and convince you not to do something than to arrest you," says Earl Mackey, 18, who likes to hang out on West First while he's unemployed. "Most people here hate the cops.

"But everybody loves Poole."