By Jessie Stensland / South Whidbey Record
LANGLEY — Contracting with the Island County Sheriff’s Office is one option Langley Mayor Tim Callison is looking into for providing law enforcement in the city.
Callison said he plans to speak with the council about ideas. He stressed that he was only exploring the possibility of contracting with the sheriff’s office. Signing a contract, he said, would probably mean waiting until after a sheriff is chosen in this November’s election.
Callison fired David Marks, the former police chief, a month ago. That followed investigations into allegations that Marks used excessive force when arresting a man in November 2017. Officer Don Lauer was named as interim police chief.
Callison said he doesn’t see any immediate problem with the department running with three officers instead of four. Reserve officers can fill in.
“It ran as a two-man department for a very long time,” he said.
Sheriff Mark Brown said he talked to Callison about the approximate cost of contracting for law enforcement and how staffing would work. He said he’s open to the idea.
“The idea has to come from them,” he said, referring to Langley.
Coupeville officials agreed to contract with the sheriff’s office in 2014, after problems with staff. The contract represented a small savings for the town at the time.
Under the arrangement, the sheriff names someone from the department to act as the town marshal and provides an additional deputy. The officers wear Coupeville Marshal’s Office uniforms and drive Coupeville patrol cars.
The officers work with town officials to set priorities for law enforcement.
This story originally appeared in the South Whidbey Record, a sibling paper of The Daily Herald.
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