By The Herald Editorial Board
Police officers are trained to act as the public’s last line of defense, the shield that is placed between a bullet and ourselves.
While an investigation continues, that certainly was what happened — what Everett police officer Dan Rocha’s instincts and training compelled him to do — when he confronted and struggled with a man with firearms in the parking lot of a north Everett coffee shop on March 25, was shot, then mercilessly run over by the fleeing man now held in his murder.
Rocha, 41, who first joined the police department in 2017 and was promoted to patrol in 2019, was a husband and father of two sons.
“He was well-liked, highly respected by his co-workers and truly loved serving our residents,” Police Chief Dan Templeman said the following day.
Along with family and fellow officers, he is grieved by residents of his city, who created memorials of cards, balloons and flowers in front of the downtown Everett Police station and the North Broadway Starbucks where he and other officers were regular customers, as watchful as they were friendly.
The loss, of course, was not unique to Everett. Just a week before, two Pierce County Sheriff’s deputies were shot, as members of the sheriff’s SWAT team served an arrest warrant in Spanaway. Deputy Dominique “Dom” Calata, 35, husband and father, died the following day at a Tacoma hospital.
The day after Officer Rocha’s fatal shooting, Edmonds Police officer Tyler Steffins, 33, husband and father, off-duty in Las Vegas, was fatally stabbed by a man with a hunting knife.
While covid-19 has been the leading killer of U.S. police officers for the last two years, statistics show a worrying increase in the violent deaths of law enforcement officers while on duty. According to records kept by the Officer Down Memorial Page, at least 62 officers were victims of homicide while on duty in 2019, 50 attributed to gunfire. Similar numbers were seen in 2020, with at least 59 homicides of on-duty officers, 45 involving firearms. That jumped, in 2021, however, to a total of at least 89 homicides of police, 62 by gunfire.
And in this year’s first three months, 16 officers in the nation have been shot and killed and five died in vehicular assaults; figures on track to match last year’s numbers.
Rocha’s violent death and the continuing threat posed to his fellow officers and to the community at large, forced a change in tone and message for Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin’s State of the City address than she had planned just a week before.
“I’m in a place of sorrow today, as I know many others are, and while I’m proud of all the good we have accomplished over the last four years, I’m admittedly not my usual positive self,” Franklin said early in her speech Friday at the Angel of the Winds Arena, which will host a public memorial service for Rocha on Monday.
The address, as is typical, was a mix of civic promotion and agenda policies. Along with priorities to address budget concerns, affordable housing, homelessness and other issues, Franklin used much of the address to highlight current public safety efforts, as well as the city’s needs, not all of them in its control.
Everett and its police department in recent years have been seen as leaders in law enforcement in terms of training and performance.
It, along with other agencies in the county, has worked to embed social workers with police patrols, and partnered with Snohomish County Human Service’s designated crisis responders, social workers who are on call 24 hours a day to assist officers, in particular calls involving mental health crises.
The department also has expanded its commitment to training. Its officers are required to complete 40 hours of training in crisis intervention and de-escalation techniques, compared to the eight hours required by the state. Everett also is a participant in a Georgetown University program called ABLE for Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement, which provides a national hub for training, technical assistance and research, focused on creating a police culture that will enable officers to prevent misconduct, avoid costly mistakes and promote officer health and wellness.
The result of that and other efforts, Franklin said, is that Everett ranks No. 1 for its case clearance rate among the state’s 10 most populous cities in the most recent Crime in Washington annual report.
“But we’ve long known we cannot arrest our way out of this problem,” Franklin cautioned. “And arrests don’t always result in accountability or safety. Parts of the system have major gaps and parts are broken.”
The city and its police department work to balance strong enforcement with outreach, but with violent crimes handled at higher levels of the criminal justice system, the mayor called for more action and resources at all levels of government.
She called for:
- Continued work by state lawmakers and officials to address community safety issues;
- Increasing the availability of access to behavioral health treatment;
- Laws that allow cities and counties to better address illegal drugs as well as property and nuisance crimes;
- More accountability for violent crimes; and
- Stronger efforts to keep guns out of the hands of those with no legal right to possess them.
“My job as mayor, as the CEO of our city,” Franklin said, “is to do everything in my power to ensure I never get a call like I did last Friday from my police chief.”
Those efforts are not in conflict with legislation and programs that the state Legislature has addressed in recent years, including bills that were adopted this year to clarify and adjust what was passed previously to ensure law enforcement that is responsive and respectful of all communities in the state.
Legislation, however, is not enough. There are responsibilities for each of us to strengthen our communities, participate in our government, look out for our neighbors and reach out to those in need.
There would be no better way to honor the memory of Officer Dan Rocha and his sacrifice, than for all to do what they can to protect the community and serve the needs of all.
Public memorial service
A memorial service, open to the public, is scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday at Angel of the Winds Arena, 2000 Hewitt Avenue, Everett.
For information on donating to the family of Dan Rocha, go to tinyurl.com/EPDRochaFamily.
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