A standoff, a felony assault and a shooting over the course of a few hours last week has local law enforcement concerned about the upcoming changes in state law that impact how they can respond to certain situations, even serious crimes.
Grays Harbor County Sheriff Rick Scott said they are seeing an increase in the number of their responses to serious crimes.
“That is sadly becoming the case, that we are seeing more and more incidents local, as well as nationally,” said Scott.
Scott, the incoming president of Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC), said he is concerned about the ripple effect of some of the new laws taking effect later this month, including new mandates for training officers and the increase in liabilities while serving their communities.
Scott said he sees the concern from residents that some of the new laws will hamstring agencies in their ability to enforce the law.
“We are blessed in our community to work for, and serve, a community that values and respects the officers that serve them,” said Scott. “Larger agencies like Seattle and King County are seeing far greater numbers of officers seeking retirement and unfilled openings within their ranks, and a much smaller number of interested applicants eligible to fill those open positions.”
With five openings in his patrol division right now, Scott said the last test process left less than 10 people eligible for those positions.
“The quality of the people we are hiring is excellent, but we’re just not getting the numbers,” said Scott.
He has seen multiple officers retiring and young officers seeking other employment outside of law enforcement both locally and statewide. Statewide, applicant pool numbers are down, and not nearly enough to fill the vacancies.
Scott said he’s in the process of interviewing lateral officers from out-of-state in order to satisfy the local needs. Some state agencies are advertising nationally to fill their open positions.
Crime up statewide
A WASPC report released last week shows overall crime is up across the state.
The annual report tracks crime and arrest data from contributing law enforcement agencies throughout Washington. It is designed to give residents, elected officials, and law enforcement data driven information about crime in their communities.
The report shows that in 2020 murders were up almost 47% and have increased overall 67% since 2016. Manslaughter went up 100%, fraud increased 131%, while drug and narcotic offenses, and reported hate crimes were down slightly.
The total number of commissioned officers statewide was down from 1.24 per thousand to 1.19 per thousand people. Washington is ranked 51st out of the 50 states and District of Columbia for the number of officers per thousand people.
Reported cases of officers assaulted was up 6% in 2020.
Statewide facts at a glance
Local Facts for rural Grays Harbor County (cities not included)