Small towns hold key for sheriff

Sheriff Rick Bart hates to admit it, but like many he expects traffic congestion, lack of affordable housing, crime and other problems associated with rapid growth will become commonplace in Snohomish County.

As a result, he believes, in 10 years, more areas in unincorporated Snohomish County will incorporate and become cities — cities that form their own police departments and no longer need the Sheriff's Office.

"The face of the Sheriff's Office is changing all over the county, and it's directly related to growth," Bart said. "The future of the Sheriff's Office is through contracting."

It's the same issue that has faced sheriff's departments in King and Pierce counties, two areas that have seen rapid growth over the past 20 years. Incorporations shrank the area covered by each sheriff's office.

The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office contracts out deputies, vehicles, weapons and services to towns and Community Transit for an annual fee. The deputies remain sheriff's employees, but they spend their on-the-job time working for towns, cities and the transit agency.

Bart said he is following King County Sheriff Dave Reichert in making new contracts a priority.

The King County Sheriff's Office, which has offered contract services for more than 25 years, devotes a section of its Web site to explaining why it contracts out to 13 cities.

According to the site, each contract city can retain control over its police department by picking police personnel from the sheriff's ranks. Contracting police services helps small, recently formed cities get "professional law enforcement at a reasonable cost."

Neither the King nor Snohomish County Sheriff's Office makes a profit off contracting.

In fact, Susan Neely, a criminal-justice analyst in Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel's office, said county code forbids the Sheriff's Office from making money off contracting services.

"We've always been supportive (of contracting) as long as the contracts just cover the costs — no more, no less," Neely said. "We've never discouraged them from going after these contracts."

The town of Index first began paying the Sheriff's Office to handle 911 calls a decade ago. Gold Bar, Darrington and Stanwood soon signed contracts. The Sheriff's Office also approached Sultan, Mukilteo and Granite Falls but was rejected by citizens and politicians.

Generally, cities that opt out of contracting with the Sheriff's Office for law-enforcement services want to retain local control.

"The citizens here like local control of their police," Sultan Police Chief Fred Walser said. "They like it when a cop walks down the street and says hi to them."

Like Bart, Walser sees more small areas incorporating, and the role of the Sheriff's Office diminishing.

"I wouldn't be surprised to see the sheriff become more of the keeper of the jail and server of civil papers," Walser said.

Rick Cothern, the chief of operations at the Sheriff's Office, said deputies assigned to Stanwood, Index and Gold Bar "belong to the cities."

"They don't have to make the sheriff happy — they have to make their mayor and their citizens happy," Cothern said. "The needs of the city are set by the city."

Cothern said deputies assigned to contract cities and towns still must follow Sheriff's Office rules on making arrests, use of deadly force and other law-enforcement activities. But, Cothern said, contract cities and towns can set tighter restrictions.

'Our own department'

There is barely a trace of Sheriff's Office green at the Stanwood Police Department. The store-front department, in a converted bank on Main Street, is the largest of the sheriff's contract bureaus.

Sheriff's Lt. Tom Davis is the chief of police. Davis oversees six officers, a sergeant and a detective. All are sworn deputies who wear blue uniforms adorned with a Sheriff's Office gold star.

Davis said Bart and other top brass leave him alone to run the department. He said he reports directly to the mayor and City Council members.

Stanwood Mayor Matt McCune said contracting takes hiring, training and police administration off the shoulders of the city.

"All I deal with is negotiating with the county every three years," McCune said. "We do have our own department. They're in Stanwood uniforms, they are in Stanwood cars, and most of the people live in the Stanwood community."

Stanwood pays the Sheriff's Office about $900,000 annually for its services. Their contract guarantees 24-hour-a-day coverage, which means between one and three officers are always on patrol for the city's 3,400 residents.

All contract cities are guaranteed use of the sheriff's homicide, special-assault, fraud, child-abuse and major-accident teams. The cities also are guaranteed the use of bomb technicians, the SWAT team, the helicopter and the dive team.

Bart said it is up to each city or town to decide what level of services to buy.

Levels of service vary

Though Stanwood pays for a full-time police department, things are much different in Gold Bar, Darrington and Index.

Darrington Police Chief Rick Hawkins said he and two deputies cover a 26-square-mile area 24 hours a day. Their territory includes Darrington and some outlying areas.

Index Clerk-Treasurer Lisa Stowe said deputies drive through the tiny town a few times a day. The Sheriff's Office, which doesn't have a station in Index, bills the town each time deputies respond to an emergency call in Index.

Stowe said the town pays the county about $6,000 a year for services.

Gold Bar Police Chief Steve Plaisance, a sheriff's sergeant, said his police station is manned between 7 a.m. and 1 a.m. Mondays through Thursdays and 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. Thursdays through Sundays. All early-morning calls are handled by the sheriff's East Precinct in Monroe.

Carol McCraw, her husband, Jack, and their neighbor Claude Peachey were critical of the decision to hire the Sheriff's Office. They say that although the Police Department was marred by scandal, they miss having around-the-clock police services, as well as officers who live in the city.

"We paid a lot less for our cops," said Carol McCraw, 63. "The Sheriff's Office is good, but we don't get the protection for the amount of money."

All three, longtime Gold Bar residents, said they would prefer having their own 24-hour police department.

The Sheriff's Office took over the town's police force in 1994, about five years after former Gold Bar Police Chief Steve Hunt was convicted of stealing 2 pounds of cocaine and $5,100 in a staged burglary at the department. He was sentenced to 13 months in prison.

Dick Johnson, a retired logger who has lived in Gold Bar for 45 years, said he has always been in favor of the Sheriff's Office taking over.

"We had too much of the good-ol'-boy stuff here," said Johnson, 61.

City Clerk-Treasurer Hester Gilleland said the town pays the county about $325,000 annually for services.

'Here you make a difference'

Stanwood police Sgt. Bill Bachand said that when the Sheriff's Office took over in 1998, he and other employees of the old Police Department were nervous. He said he and four other Stanwood officers were told they could stay on but were required to pass the Sheriff's Office screening: a polygraph, criminal-background check and physical examination.

All five qualified, but only Bachand and another officer remain in Stanwood. The other three moved to other positions in the Sheriff's Office.

"There is a direct connection with people in the community here," said Davis, Stanwood's chief. "They can call me by my first name and I can call them by their first name."

Plaisance said working in Gold Bar is a big change from working as a patrol sergeant in the sheriff's East Precinct in Monroe.

"It was always before that you ran, ran, ran, and you were chasing (911) calls," Plaisance said. "Everything is self-generated. If I am seen, I can divert problems before they occur."

Hawkins said he is "a firm believer" in parking his car and walking around town while patrolling. He said that when he started as Darrington's police chief five years ago, he went door to door to meet residents.

"Here you make a difference," Hawkins said. "There (working as a county patrol deputy), you put a little Band-Aid on it; you're not resolving problems."

Jennifer Sullivan: 425-783-0604 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com