City goes light on law enforcement

Despite a request from Chief of Police Brad Thompson to add 10 more officers to the small Sammamish force, the city has provided for only one additional officer in its 2009/10 budget.

Sammamish has less than half as many police officers as cities with a similar population, and the same number as Sequim and Shelton, cities with a population of 5,000 and 9,000 respectively.

Thompson said that he calculated 10 additional officers would be required "to get to where we need to be" in terms of adequately policing the city.

With the population of Sammamish at 40,000 and growing, thanks in part to recent, and future, annexations of unincorporated neighborhoods into the city, concerns were raised at a recent council meeting that public safety would suffer should the growth of the contracted police force not keep pace with that of the city.

The city contracts with the King County Sheriff's Office to provide its police service, and spends significantly less on its force than any other city on the eastside.

The Sammamish police force is made up of 22 staff, which includes administrative staff and detectives.

The 22 also includes 2 rotating shared vacancies required by the county, which equates to an actual force of 20, of which 10 are patrolling officers.

City of Sammamish Director of Finance Lyman Howard confirmed recently that the 2009/10 budget included money for an additional officer.

However according to Thompson, that officer would not be active on the streets of Sammamish until as late as 2011.

"Once the okay has been given to take on another officer, the King County Sheriff's Office has to hire someone, then that person undergoes six months and training, and then it is another three months of on-the-street training before they can begin full duties," he said.

"Depending on when the academy begins its intake, and whether suitable candidates are available, if we were to have an officer trained and ready by October 2010, that would be fast."

About 40 percent of recruits fail to graduate from the police training academy.

Some interesting figures:

City Population Officers

Sammamish 40,260 22

Puyallup 36,790 52

Marysville 36,210 49

Edmonds 40,560 54

Olympia 44,460 69

Richland 45,070 54

Washougal 13,000 20

Sequim 5,000 21

Shelton 9,000 22

Issaquah, with a population of 20,000 which swells to about 65,000 during the day, has 33 sworn officers.

Of these 21 are patrolling, and two are traffic officers.

Thompson said that with the current number of officers he has available, the local force would not be able to adequately respond to two or more priority one situations in the city at the same time.

"I'm always concerned about the perfect storm," he said, before adding that although King County Sheriff's deputies were technically available to help in Sammamish, that relationship had not been of great benefit to the city.

"The numbers show that sheriff's deputies came into this city 97 times in 2008, whereas Sammamish officers left the city to serve as the primary officers in other areas 253 times," he said.

Contact Sammamish Reporter Editor Jake Lynch at editor@sammamish-reporter.com.

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