Undersheriff Anderson
Pursuit Legislation Update
Many of you are aware of the pursuit legislation that is playing out in Olympia right now. It’s been an interesting dialogue between the Senate and House in coming to an agreement on the changes that need to be made to police pursuit law, but we are almost there. I’m happy to report that we will be seeing some improvement that will help in our efforts to keep our communities safe in apprehending offenders who shouldn’t feel they have a free ticket to run from us. The specific changes in ESB 5352 that will likely become law include:
- The return to allowing police to pursue under reasonable suspicion (no longer probably cause only) when someone has committed or is committing:
- Violent offense or sex offense as defined in 9.94A.030; or
- Vehicular assault; or
- Domestic violence assault; or
- Escape as defined in RCW 9A.76; or
- DUI
 In addition, as we are aware from our own training and policy, the following conditions apply:
- Pursuit is necessary for the purpose of identifying or apprehending the person; and
- The person poses a serious risk of harm to others and the safety risks of failing to apprehend or identify the person are considered greater than the safety risk of pursuit; and
- Pursuing officer immediately notifies supervisor of the pursuit including notifying on-call supervisor for small agencies; and
- Officer and supervisor consider alternatives to pursuit; and
- Notice is given to other LEAs impacted by pursuit; and
- Officer can communicate directly with others in pursuit (e.g., via radio channel); and
- Officer/supervisor develop a plan to end pursuit; and
- The pursuing officer has had EVOC in past two years and certified in at least one pursuit intervention option.
Discretion will continue to be key in making decisions to continue a pursuit. The identification and need to immediately apprehend the person will be a significant factor in allowing a pursuit to continue even under reasonable suspicion. For example, most DV suspects are known, so allowing a pursuit to continue for those crimes will not be authorized unless you have information that the person poses a serious risk of harm to others.
We will have our pursuit policies updated and ready to push out once the changes become law. The changes will be incorporated into our training, but for many of us who have been around for a while know this is more a return to previous versions of our pursuit policy and training.
- Jesse Anderson
Patrol Operations
Chief Jose Marenco
Precinct 5 SET Narcotics Search Warrent
Yesterday, April 19th, Precinct 5 Special Emphasis Team (SET) completed a multi-month narcotics investigation with assistance from Precinct 5 Criminal Investigations Unit (CIU), Precinct 5 Patrol, and Precinct 4 SET. This investigation involved a Drug Trafficking Organization network who was distributing large amounts of fentanyl pills, fentanyl powder, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and firearms to communities in and around the city of Shoreline. This investigation involved hundreds of hours of surveillance, multiple Narcotics K9 applications from K9 Quinn, and at least seven (7) search warrants. The result from this investigation are as follows:
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- 209,000 M30 Fentanyl pills
- 10.3lbs Fentanyl powder
- 4.2lbs Heroin
- 1.4lbs Cocaine
- 58 grams Methamphetamine
- Approximately $180,000 cash seized
- 1 Handgun
- 1 sawed off shotgun
- 3 Cars seized
- Suspect booked for one (1) count Inv. VUCSA-Possession w/intent to distribute
- Suspect booked for one (1) count Inv. VUCSA-Possession w/intent to distribute and one (1) count Inv. Unlawful Possession of Firearm
We would like to give a special thanks to our dispatchers for helping make this operation possible and safe.
- Sergeant Brett Davis / Precinct 4 Street Crimes Unit
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Special Operations
Chief Jeff Flohr
BDU Participate in Community Outreach
The Bomb Disposal Unit (BDU) conducts community outreach as an important part of their work. This outreach provides support for Citizen’s Academy courses, educational support for schools, and inspires and uplifts youth programs in the field of robotics. Last month, Bomb Technicians David Mendez, Jeremy Todd, and JD Williams assisted the Tahoma School District and City of Maple Valley by providing presentations and robot demonstrations.
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Deputies Mendez and Todd participated in the Tahoma School District Science Fair at Tahoma High School. The science fair is an annual event with hundreds of participants from many grade levels. BDU robots are always a hit with students and families. This year BDU met with the Bear Metal Robotics Team for Tahoma High School who developed a robot to climb monkey bars.
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Deputies Williams and Mendez provided support to Robin Larsen and Micki Christensen who coordinated the Maple Valley Citizen’s Academy. The academy is always a great opportunity to provide citizens with a more in-depth explanation of the work we do within the Sheriff’s Office. BDU gave a presentation and demonstration of the equipment we use to render safe hazardous devices.
- Hiram Grijalva / Bomb Disposal Unit
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Sound Transit Achievements
 Earlier this week, four (4) Sound Transit deputies were awarded the Lifesaver Award.
Pictured (above, left to right): Deputy Lee Crawley, Deputy Seth Moore, Deputy Dirk Graham, and Deputy Ernest McCuien.
We also celebrated Sergeant Kevin Davis (pictured right) for his 25 years of service at the Sheriff's Office.
- Major Marcus Williams / Sound Transit
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JTATT Weekly Update
The Joint Transit Anti-Terrorism Team (JTATT) started the week with an emphasis for the Sounders game. During our emphasis, we find ourselves spending a lot of time in the area of 5th Ave and South Jackson St in Seattle. We also spent a lot of time sweeping buses and high traffic areas around the station and platform.
During the emphasis, JTATT also caught an infamous criminal. Detective Pete Copeland and Deputy Matt Toscano caught Captain Jack Sparrow. As we parted ways, we were reminded “this was the time you almost met Captain Jack Sparrow.” Community policing at its finest!
An incident at the Northgate Station last week took up a vast majority of our time. Sound Transit Security called to report a suspicious item had been left on one of the trains, which lead to the evacuation of the Station and some surrounding areas.
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Sergeant Copeland ran the command post during the incident, and Captain Scott Dery was incident command. All of the assets that Sound Transit and Metro have generated integrated well, resulting in things being resolved smoothing and normal operations resuming very quickly.
I heard a lot of things - the bus bridge, traffic control, pedestrian management - 'just happened'. Those things didn't just happen; it was largely the coordination of our Sergeants and Captains with the civilian side of transit. This was one of the smoothest incidents I have seen in the contract so far.
Deputies and JTATT, along with BDU members helped clean up the platform after the incident was rendered safe.
- Detective Sean Pierce / Sound Transit, JTATT
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Support Services
Chief Troy Olmsted
Welcome to our Newest Class!
Please join us in welcoming our newest class of Communication Specialists. Pictured (left to right): Aritha, Amanda, Rhiannon, and Kristine. They will be working hard in our training academy for several weeks to prepare for the next phase of training which will include both answering calls while double-plugged with their trainers, and eventually independently.
We're excited to have an additional three (3) new Comm Specs joining us in May.
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