Letters to the Editor
Letter to the Editor | Charter commission election could impact public safety
Well, well, well. I never imagined I’d see so much spirited commentary concerning seats for the Pierce County Charter Review seats. You probably didn’t either. You may not even know what the charter does. In truth, it probably didn’t matter much before. But it does this time. I hope to be able to convey why.
First, I would like to address the tired, meaningless rhetoric I read. You have probably heard ad nauseum phrases like “constitutional crisis”, “threat to democracy”, “extremist”, “divisive”, “far-right”, and even “fascist” and “nazi”. It’s hyperbolic nonsense. It’s for effect, it’s a pattern from a playbook. Why do they try to apply these terms to people you would most likely consider normal? Because it’s all they have left. I doubt many that sling these terms around even know what they mean and they would definitely have issues explaining how they were applicable. It’s desperation. I mean, I thought supporting men smashing volleyballs into the faces of women was extreme. I thought it was really weird that our government was facilitating the importation of fentanyl so much so that it killed 220,000 Americans in the previous 4 years (more than we lost fighting actual nazis in WW2). But that’s me, I am probably just odd about stuff like that.
Back to the charter. You should rely on your own research to cast your votes. However, I am going to tell you what my research found, and I am openly telling you that I am trying to influence you.
Let’s journey to the Emerald City, all the way back to 2016. At that time, Seattle employed over 1,400 police officers. The police budget was about $300 million. Homicides for the year were at 19. For a city of that size, that’s not a terrible number. Now let’s fast forward to 2023. Seattle now only employs a little over 900 police officers. Think of all the money they must be saving! Nope. Now the police budget is $360 million! Uh, you’re telling me that they lost a third of their force, but it now costs 20% more? Yep. What about the number of homicides? In 2023 in Seattle, it was 73, a near quadrupling. Summer of Love indeed. Seattle’s ratio of police officers per 1,000 population is now about 1.13. This is absurdly low compared to a national average that is debatably around 2 per 1,000. Thankfully Seattle is able to concentrate what they have in 90 square miles of land.
You might think that has zero effect on you, but you might be missing something. Let’s look at Pierce County. At the moment, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department has about 300 deputies. They cover about 1,800 square miles (much of this is Mount Rainier, but still….). What’s the officer ratio? Remember when I told you Seattle was at an absurdly low 1.13? Pierce County’s is half of that. That’s right, .67. Spread over a massive area. How do they do it? It’s bananas.
But you said Seattle affected me somehow? Welp, it should be pretty obvious that Seattle has had to pay through the roof for their officers. Increased pay, bonuses, and much improved benefits packages. Seattle still has an officer count in the low 900s but this is what they had to do to remain competitive. As we live in a free society, law enforcement officers are free to work wherever they can get hired. Pierce County deputies, that got trained with your tax dollars, are free to go to Seattle, Tacoma, Puyallup, or anywhere else in the country that is best suited to their needs. I know of promoted Pierce County deputies that have left to become entry level firefighters. That’s how far their pay and benefits have fallen. They work here sacrificing tens of thousand of dollars in pay and benefits under conditions that are less safe. On a good day, the drive from the Narrows Bridge to Longbranch on the Key Peninsula is 45 minutes. That’s a long wait for lifesaving back up. But somehow, they get paid less.
Sheriff’s Guild President Shawn Darby has told the body he represents that they should seek employment elsewhere because they will not get paid what they are worth here. He’s right to do it, and they believe him. You are going to see deputies, that you helped train financially, take their talents elsewhere. Remember that .67 ratio? Prepare for less. Remember what the Key Peninsula was like in the methamphetamine era of the late 90’s and early 2000’s. There were no deputies on duty in our area for 4 hours every day. The minimum staffing was 2. The minimum staffing is still 2, but at the moment we have coverage all day at least.
Thurston County Sheriff Sanders put a couple of very illuminating graphs on Facebook a couple days ago that showed the cost in human lives and property loss after the pursuit laws started in 2021 and when they ended in 2023. Horrific. My point is that people who have no idea what they are doing are making law enforcement policy. I believe that it’s imperative that we keep the County Executive’s Office as far away as possible from our Sheriff’s Department and that you should be urging that office to pay our priceless deputies what they deserve. I saw yesterday that crime in the country’s big cities has taken a significant tumble since January of this year. I have no idea….whatsoever…..of what could have caused this. It’s a mystery, cloaked in a conundrum. What could it be? My point is that electing the right charter members will help.
I am not going to tell you for whom you should vote. You should do your own research, and you should definitely not believe anything I said. You need to determine what level of crime you find acceptable. But if you get it wrong, and things go south in the safety and security for you and your family……well, maybe you can call George for assistance. Good luck.
Richard Folden
Gig Harbor