Candidates for Clark County sheriff say now is the time to think big and think bold.
After all, one of the four candidates — Chuck Atkins, Shane Gardner, John Graser and Ed Owens — will replace retiring Sheriff Garry Lucas when votes are tallied in November. It will be the first change in leadership for the county’s top law enforcement position since Lucas took office in 1991.
In an hourlong interview with The Columbian, broadcast live over the Internet, the candidates tackled topics ranging from how best to reach out to minority groups to whether staffing reconfiguration needs to occur to put more deputies on the streets.
In response to what the sheriff’s office could do to improve safety at schools — in light of the deadly shooting earlier this month at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Ore. — the candidates offered different approaches.
Gardner, the office’s community outreach sergeant, said more could be done to train teachers and law enforcement about the warning signs of troubled students. While Gardner said he supported the use of school resource officers, he warned against going too far, saying it was unrealistic to expect schools to be as safe as locked-down facilities.
“Our schools are places of education,” Gardner said. “They are not built to be Fort Knox.”
The candidates agreed that a committed school shooter could find his way on to any school campus. Still, resource officers are the first line of defense, the candidates said, with Graser, a retired sheriff’s commander, saying he’d like to see officers in all schools.
The candidates also tackled the topic of how to do more policing with less money. Even though commissioners approved money for the hiring of eight new deputies earlier in the year, the candidates said they worried about the long-term effects tight budgets have on law enforcement.
“It’s great that we’ll have eight new positions, absolutely,” said Owens, a former sheriff’s office detective. “But from what I understand, we won’t be able to get those positions into the academy until after the first of the year.”
There was also concern that the sheriff’s office wouldn’t have a sustainable funding stream to pay for the officers in the years to come — that is, without commissioners loosening the purse strings and shelling out more money.
The county is already underserved by on-the-street deputies, when compared to other counties of a comparable size. The county was forced to lay off deputies after the economy tanked in 2008 when the burst housing bubble set the economic downturn in motion.
“With the loss of 21 deputies from 2008 to 2010, we are at a bare-bones minimum of 136,” said Atkins, a retired sheriff’s office commander.
He said the additional eight deputies was a nice first step but also a little light when weighed against the county’s policing needs.
Graser said he had a plan in place that would reconfigure the sheriff’s office and add 28 deputies to the streets.
Atkins questioned whether the idea was feasible given the already tight staffing levels at the sheriff’s office.
“I would challenge John to (find) where those 21 bodies would come from,” Atkins said. “We know there are eight (coming) from the commissioners. But where are those other 20 bodies going to come from, and how are we going to move them out of critical spots … to put them back on patrol?”
On the topic of reaching out to minority populations, Owens said more could be done to train officers in how to handle situations appropriately.
Gardner said that lack of training sometimes leads to communication breakdowns at crime scenes.
“We have deputies asking about citizenship when they’re in the middle of an assault investigation and it shuts down the victim’s demeanor because they’re worried they’re going to be deported, and that’s not what we’re there to investigate,” Gardner said.
The candidates agreed that reaching out to minority groups was important to foster community relationships.
