More officers sought for Snohomish County
By Warren Cornwall
Herald Writer
The message is as stark as the signs.
In recent months, billboards with tall red and black letters have warned motorists that Snohomish County’s law enforcement ranks are dangerously low.
"Got deputies?" reads one sign stationed on Broadway in Everett.
The ads from the deputy sheriff’s union are echoed by Sheriff Rick Bart and have now found their way into campaigns for the three county council seats up for election.
Several candidates have made law enforcement a top issue in their campaigns, and virtually all of them have vowed to increase staffing.
It’s one of several high-profile and expensive public-safety decisions that a council reshaped by the Nov. 6 election is likely to face.
The additional 47.5 patrol officers recommended by the union and sheriff could cost more than $3.5 million a year and increase costs in other departments as well. The county also is on the verge of breaking ground on an $87 million jail expansion and of asking voters for a sales tax increase to staff it.
This comes at a time when law and justice claims an increasing share of the county’s general fund — nearly 69 percent in the proposed 2002 spending package.
Just how urgent the need for more deputies is, and how much it’s on the minds of voters, depends on which candidate you ask.
Jeff Sax, a Republican seeking the 5th District seat, said it’s a top issue for many people he meets going door-to-door.
"We’re recklessly underserved right now," Sax said.
Dave Somers, the Democratic incumbent and Sax’s opponent, said he has heard more from people concerned about growth pressures and traffic.
"It’s a top priority, but it’s not the only thing we do," he said of law enforcement.
The deputies’ union has worked to push the issue into the spotlight with its advertisements. Ty Trenary, president of the Snohomish County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, said the group wanted to alert citizens that county officials have failed to respond to policing needs.
As a result of the shortage, people who call with less urgent problems, such as a burglary that took place hours earlier, are sometimes asked to call back later, he said.
"I don’t think that this current administration has made safety a priority," Trenary said.
With their eyes on staffing issues, the union and sheriff have split their endorsements between the parties. The union endorsed Democrat Mike Ashley in the 1st District, Sax, and 4th District Republican candidate Dave Schmidt. Bart endorsed Ashley, Somers and Schmidt.
The sheriff’s department needs more staff to meet benchmarks agreed to by the county council, according to the county’s own measurements. But other gauges of performance suggest the growing officer ranks have made some inroads.
County officials rely largely on a computer program to gauge the need for patrol officers. Known as Corona, the name of the company that designed it, the program measures everything from how quickly officers get to emergency calls to how many miles of road they have to patrol.
It calculates the number of patrol officers needed to ensure that deputies can respond to emergencies quickly and still be free to do other police work. That number rose to 47.5 officers by 2001, compared with 35 in 1998.
At the same time, the number of 911 calls for every officer, and response times for the most urgent calls — two other measures of staffing needs — have both dropped.
Bart said that drop can be attributed partly to added officers. The county has hired 35 new sheriff’s staff, including 27 new officers, since 1998. It’s also because officers now are instructed to respond to urgent calls even if it means stopping in the middle of a less pressing call, he said.
Hiring new officers also means paying for them. And that could put a squeeze on other county spending or require a tax increase. Adding 47 officers would cost more than $3.5 million a year, excluding one-time start-up costs.
It could also pressure prosecutors and jailers who must deal with people arrested by the new deputies. A 1998 county study concluded that 50 new officers would create more than $5 million in added costs for other departments.
County Executive Bob Drewel’s proposed 2002 budget would add five deputies.
If the council and executive aren’t willing to find the dollars for more deputies in the budget, then Bart said they may need to ask voters for a tax increase dedicated to paying for deputies.
Council candidates are already split in their support for another proposed crime-related tax hike.
Drewel wants a ballot measure raising the sales tax by one-tenth of a cent to pay part of the cost of running a new jail. The current jail has suffered from overcrowding for years. The tax is expected to raise as much as $8.5 million of the $12.5 million annual cost of running the jail, which is expected to open in 2004.
You can call Herald Writer Warren Cornwall at 425-339-3463 or send e-mail to cornwall@heraldnet.com.
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