More focus needed on rural areas

I read with great interest John Lovick's guest commentary, "Gang members aren't welcome in our county," in Sunday's Herald, but I came away puzzled. What is the Snohomish County sheriff doing spending hard-to-find resources in money and personnel in what is essentially a problem for the police departments in the various cities involved? What jurisdiction does Lovick think he has in the incorporated areas?

Fact is, the real gang problems are in the rural, unincorporated areas where catalytic converters, aluminum watering systems, copper wire and all sorts of valuable metal items are being heisted daily off of farms and ranches; not to mention the ever-present meth production labs.

Many of us are very concerned that this commentary of Lovick's is nothing short of a reversal of the long-standing policy put in place by former Sheriff Rick Bart to provide adequate law enforcement in the rural areas. Resources, such as valuable personnel, are in scarce supply in the sheriff's office and if Lovick is shifting those resources to the urban areas, this change in policy could be a disaster for those of us who live out in the boonies where the average response time for sheriff's deputies is already degraded by time, routes and distance.

John Lovick needs to spend more time talking to groups such as the Snohomish County Farm Bureau and other rural organizations and less time in the cities where they already have police departments.

Bob Clark
Monroe