Although the Clark County Sheriff’s Office recently hired 19 new deputies, Sheriff John Horch said backlogs at the state police academy mean it will take about two years before those deputies are patrolling the streets.
The hiring update was among the topics sheriff’s office leadership shared during a community forum Wednesday evening at the Three Creeks Community Library in Salmon Creek. About 15 people attended to hear about the agency’s staffing and body-worn camera program, as well as state police reform legislation, and ask questions.
Horch also introduced his administrative team: Undersheriff Jim Hansen, Chief Administrative Deputy Mike McCabe, Chief Civil Deputy Duncan Hoss and Chief Criminal Deputy Brian Kessel.
He hopes to host similar forums every few months in different areas of the county. Horch said he sees it as fulfilling a promise he made on the campaign trail to increase communication with the community.
Horch and other law enforcement officials had previously sounded the alarm that low pay, excessive overtime and increased police reform legislation have driven people away from the profession and pushed others toward early retirements. But Horch was optimistic Wednesday the tide is turning.
“We’re getting people applying again who want to be police officers. We’re getting a turn,” Horch said. “I’ve seen the pendulum go this far, and it started to come back. I can feel it.”
But Kessel said the enforcement branch still has 15 vacancies, in addition to the 19 untrained new hires.
Both Horch and Kessel noted the wait times for space at the state’s police academy in King County, which they said has been seven to 10 months. By comparison, Horch said he waited two weeks to get into the academy before he was hired in 1989. It takes about 4½ months to graduate from the academy.
State legislators have expressed support for building more regional police academies, including one in Vancouver. Horch is confident an academy is coming to the area, and he said he’s thrown his support behind opening a facility as soon as possible, even in a temporary location.
Deputies have also recently started responding to some calls that former Sheriff Chuck Atkins announced in 2021 the agency would cut due to low staffing, Kessel said. Sheriff’s office leadership reworked the shift schedule to focus staffing during peak hours for the agency, he said.
They’ve also invested in technology to alleviate the need for as many deputies. Kessel pointed to the agency’s drone program as a way to find and track suspects without having to flood an area with deputies.
“The biggest thing is we’re really having to change our tactics and work a little bit differently and get more proactive and use the tech and the options that are out there for us,” Kessel said. “The biggest one is the staffing. Once we get that staffing back up, we’re able to staff our detective unit back up, we’re able to get back in the schools and really do a lot of those things.”
Body cameras
McCabe, the administrative chief, shared the status of the agency’s body-worn camera program. The audience passed around an Axon body camera, which is the same as those used by the Camas and Vancouver police departments.
He said he will recommend to county leadership the sheriff’s office contract with Axon, in part because that would mean seamless data-sharing between the agencies. McCabe also said Axon has been a proven industry leader — known for its long battery life, durability and compatibility with other video formats, such as Ring cameras and cellphone footage.
The program will cost $4.4 million over five years, he said. McCabe said the sheriff’s office already has a tentative policy worked out with the deputy guild. Still, the policy is subject to collective bargaining between the guild and the county, he said.
McCabe said the plan is to begin outfitting deputies and vehicles with cameras in June and around October, respectively. But he also called that estimate aggressive and said there’s still a lot of work to be done first.
Hoss, the chief civil deputy, said his concern with the camera program is the strain the workload of storing and releasing footage would put on his understaffed records team.
Horch was optimistic the Legislature is poised to roll back some police reform legislation enacted in 2021, which he called a “knee-jerk reaction” to the public outcry over instances of police brutality. He said he’s taken multiple trips to Olympia this year and spoken with area representatives from both political parties about Clark County’s public safety needs.
