The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) was the beneficiary of a flurry of moves approved by the Thurston County Board of Commissioners Tuesday, including two additional grappler units, 15 arresting nets, 18 mobile radios and 18 portable radios.
In addition, the commissioners also extended contracts with the North Thurston Public Schools district for a school resource officer (SRO) and with the Washington state Department of Corrections (DOC) for two DOC employees to participate in the county’s narcotics task force operations. The sheriff’s office will reimburse the DOC for overtime costs up to $10,000 per year through 2027.
TCSO also entered into an interlocal agreement with Lacey Fire District 3 to include paramedics employed by Lacey’s department into the Thurston County SWAT team.
The sole source contract with Motorola for the radios and associated equipment is in the amount of $303,378.48 to equip the sheriff’s department’s 18 additional deputies with portable and vehicle-mounted radios. The purchase is funded by the voter-approved Public Safety Sales Tax, and the radios will be compatible with the new TCOMM digital radio system. This radio replacement is required for interoperability with the 911 dispatching center in Thurston County and provides interoperable, consistent and reliable emergent communications across the county.
TCSO’s purchase of two new grappler units comes after the board’s approval of six grappler units last April. The agency was awarded nearly $20,000 from the state Department of Justice’s Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program in January to purchase the two new units. The grappler system is a high-speed pursuit alternative to reduce risk to deputies and the community. This equipment, deployed from the front end of the deputy’s vehicle and affixes to the rear tire of a suspect’s vehicle, allows law enforcement to quickly bring a suspect vehicle in a high-speed pursuit to a stop by causing it to become tethered to the patrol vehicle.
With the board’s approval of the extended contract Tuesday, an SRO will provide security and crime prevention services to Nisqually Middle School and NTPS’ seven elementary schools on a full-time basis during the next three school years, starting with the 2025-26 school year. NTPS will provide $95,000 for a uniformed presence on the campus. Sheriff Derek Sanders said the district will pay for up to 75% of the deputy’s salary and benefits and the county will foot the rest of the bill for patrol schedules during extended breaks from school duty.
“The SROs are full-time funded for the schools. For instance, an SRO will spend Monday through Friday in the school full time, and then on holidays, they get the days off like the school does,” Sanders said. “On Christmas break, they’ll usually go to a patrol schedule. When they’re not in the schools for an extended period of time, like summer break, they go to a patrol schedule, which is why the schools pay for up to 75%. In the summertime, it’s not like the SROs are just gone. They rotate back and are still working.”
Thurston County Commissioner Emily Clouse abstained from voting on the extension of the NTPS contract for an SRO as she initially called for a motion to postpone the item until the April 29 meeting. She expressed interest in meeting further with the school district and sheriff’s office to hash out the details. Sanders said he would be happy to meet with her and the district but that the contract needed to move forward sooner rather than later.
The contract was approved 4-0 with Clouse’s abstention.
“If I may, I would request that we push for a vote at this point in time. This is not a new contract. This isn’t a new concept. This isn’t new equipment. This isn’t a new funding request,” he said. “This is the ongoing commitment of a program that the schools, quite frankly, have begged us to be a part of and the community has begged us to be a part of.”
As for the interlocal agreement with Lacey Fire District 3, the agency’s paramedics will be added to the county’s SWAT team that includes members from the sheriff’s office and police departments from Olympia, Tumwater, Lacey and Yelm. Sanders explained that the benefits of having a medic on the SWAT team are “plentiful.”
“Oftentimes, if the SWAT team is deployed, traditionally Thurston County Medic One would have to just stage there for hours, which takes a medic unit out of commission. Now, we have a medic who is already on scene. We can just call them if we do need them for something,” Sanders said. “Furthermore, the SWAT team would be deployed to active shooters and things of that sort, so having a trauma medic would be extremely helpful as well in this scenario.”
