SpokaneFāVS
News Release
This year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade in downtown Spokane will feature more safety precautions to ensure the safety of people attending the parade as well as those in nearby areas. In addition to the usual enhanced security for events in downtown Spokane, this year’s MLK Day Parade will include the following additional provisions:
- Citizens will see an increased police presence and will find a uniformed police officer at every intersection along the parade route
- There will be acommand post for emergency responders to monitor event operations.
- Members of the Explosive Disposal Unit will be on site, to ensure a rapid response to any possible threats
- Additional behind the scenes measures are being implemented as well
The annual MLK Day march is an opportunity for citizens to speak out against hate, according to a statement from police.The parade will be Jan. 16 at 10 a.m. at the INB Performing Arts Center. Members of the police command staff will be attending and marching in this parade alongside the rest of the community. The police have pledged “to do everything in our power to help our community feel safe as well as stay safe at the MLK Day Parade and other events in this area.”
Tracy Simmons is an award-winning journalist specializing in religion reporting and digital entrepreneurship. In her approximate 20 years on the religion beat, Simmons has tucked a notepad in her pocket and found some of her favorite stories aboard cargo ships in New Jersey, on a police chase in Albuquerque, in dusty Texas church bell towers, on the streets of New York and in tent cities in Haiti. Simmons has worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas, Connecticut and Washington. She is the executive director of SpokaneFāVS.com, a digital journalism start-up covering religion news and commentary in Spokane, Washington. She also writes for The Spokesman-Review and national publications. She is a Scholarly Assistant Professor of Journalism at Washington State University.
