History and convention may support the notion of an elected county sheriff, but that doesn’t make it a good idea.
Most counties in the country have elected sheriffs – fewer than 100 are appointed – the details in King and Snohomish counties are also steeped in tradition. Back in the 1960s, a handful of Washington counties took advantage of a state law change and became “home rule” counties, with their own charters.
In Snohomish County, the position has been elected, but 10 years ago, became a non-partisan race. The current sheriff, Rick Bart, came in as a Republican, was re-elected without party affiliation and is now launching a partisan campaign against County Executive Aaron Reardon.
However, the last thing Snohomish County residents need is their sheriff calling their executive “an arrogant SOB” in the newspaper, as Bart did in the June 25 Herald.
In King County, the sheriff was appointed until eight years ago, midway through former top cop Dave Reichert’s reign. To keep the job at which he was widely acknowledged as being quite good, Reichert was forced to run in a non-partisan race. He used that platform, and GOP backing, for a successful run for Congress. His successor, Sue Rahr, was appointed to fill out Reichert’s term and also acknowledged as a good cop. Rahr only became a partisan lightning rod when she was forced to run for re-election if she wanted to keep on leading one of the top police agencies in the country.
The King County Council was perfectly happy with Rahr’s job performance as a chief, but when she became a political opponent to half of them, suddenly she couldn’t lace up her boots.
The top priority of local and county government is law enforcement. The offices in charge of that priority should be worrying about catching bad guys and serving the people, not political parties.
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