Local criminal justice officials sounded the alarm Tuesday at a Clark County Council work session over what the passage of Vancouver’s Proposition 4, which would add 80 new police officers, could mean for what they say is already a strained system.
County Manager Kathleen Otto said the additional arrests, citations and traffic tickets from the added Vancouver officers would require extra staff for Clark County District Court, Superior Court, Juvenile Court, Clerk’s Office, Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and Office of Public Defense.
The county’s current general fund budget for law and justice services is $89.5 million. To accommodate potential new officers, county law and justice partners initial review estimates an increase of about 13 percent and then an annual increase of about 5.5 percent. This does not include any capital and one-time startup costs for new employees, according to county spokeswoman Joni McAnally.
While the city of Vancouver pays the county for about half of misdemeanor cases and city infractions, which are handled by District Court, Otto noted the city does not pay for felony cases handled by Superior Court, or the attorneys working the cases at the prosecutor’s office and public defense office. Those accused of felonies also account for 90 percent of the incarcerated population at the county jail, she said.
“The goal of this is to ensure that the goals of the sheriff’s office and the city of Vancouver are going to be met and ensuring that we have public safety in our community,” Otto said. “If we don’t get capacity, we will be a bottleneck, and therefore, those goals will not be realized.”
The meeting came on the heels of the county council on Friday passing a resolution warning of the costs.
At a Monday meeting, Vancouver City Council members expressed disappointment in the county’s messaging, with Councilor Sarah Fox saying the resolution doesn’t work to solve the region’s public safety issues. Councilor Erik Paulsen called for a better relationship between the two governing bodies.
“It’s not only unfortunate that the action was taken, but the timing of the action is especially egregious,” Paulsen said of the county’s resolution. “And I think it speaks very poorly to the partnership and collaboration between the city and the county, and we need to do better for our community.”
City Manager Lon Pluckhahn noted the 80 new officers Proposition 4 would fund would not begin working immediately. It would likely take about seven years to get that number hired, trained and outfitted with the necessary equipment.
Some city council members questioned what information the county received that suggests a dire financial strain on the justice system.
Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle noted many of the initial batch of officers funded by Proposition 4 would help cover shifts that current city police are working on overtime, which wouldn’t necessarily equate to more cases. She also suggested more officers might not result in a direct increase in cases because additional police patrols could act as a deterrent to some crime.
County Council Chair Gary Medvigy agreed county and city officials need to work better together in the future. He asked during Wednesday’s meeting whether any city staffers were there to see the data county department heads provided on the potential impacts, but county staffers couldn’t say if any city officials were watching online.
“We all support public safety. That’s our No. 1 duty. We are not against Prop. 4. We never said that,” Medvigy said. “What we were trying to highlight is what we heard today — the potential, as best we can estimate by all the stakeholders — the impacts. And that’s in addition to the ongoing challenges, even if Prop. 4 doesn’t pass.”
Department impacts
Several county officials explained the math they used to project, based on current caseloads and staffing, what 80 new Vancouver police officers would mean for their agencies. They also provided data to the council about their current staffing levels and what they’d need by 2032.
District Court Administrator Bryan Farrell said his court could see an additional 2,300 misdemeanor cases in five years and 1,700 new traffic infractions from the additional city officers. But he said the biggest impact could come from a traffic camera program, which Prop. 4 promises to fund. He said assuming each camera captures 75 traffic violations per month, that would be 27,000 new traffic cases for the court.
“The scariest part of this for us is the implementation of traffic enforcement cameras. This is an unknown,” Farrell said. “For most every agency that’s implemented something like this, the impact is in the courtroom, as well. There’s a lot more folks who contest these types of hearings and question the constitutionality of photo radar enforcement, which will completely grow the need for judicial officers and staff to process these cases.”
He said he believes the additional cases would require five more judicial officers — three new commissioners and two new judges — to hear them. He also anticipates additional need in other departments overseen by District Court, such as pre-trial services, jury administration, therapeutic courts and interpreter services.
Superior Court Administrator Pamela Hartman Beyer said her court would likely need three new judicial officers to handle criminal cases by 2032, along with support staff for those positions. But, she also said it’s difficult to have a precise formula for how much caseloads will increase. She was unable, she said, to calculate any change to other types of filings, such as civil protection orders or juvenile dependency cases, which might increase with a greater law enforcement presence in the city, making people aware of those resources.
“I think it’s unreasonable to say there will be more murders or more high-profile crimes. I don’t think that’s the case,” Hartman Beyer said. “I think our sheriff’s office and our officers respond to all of those cases, but we don’t know the impact that we’re going to have on Class C felonies or different felonies that they may be able to respond to in different ways or with more resources.”
Officials at the prosecutor’s office said they would need an additional 17 deputy prosecutors by 2032 to handle felony and juvenile cases, along with support staff. The Office of Public Defense anticipates needing 29 more defense attorneys in that time, along with additional staffers, according to data provided to the county council.
Jail Director David Shook said the 40-year-old jail is already at capacity, without additional officers making additional arrests.
“Almost every week we hear from our law enforcement partners, ‘Hey, how are we? How can we bring more inmates to the jail?’ ” Shook said. “We’re currently on a red status and have been since August.”
He said the biggest issue at the jail is the time it takes to book someone into the facility. He said the jail would focus on increasing staff in booking and the records department. He foresees needing 16 new corrections officers and 14 records specialists by 2032, according to county data.
The need for more jail capacity as a consequence of more officers is separate, Deputy County Manager Amber Emery noted, from the needed renovations at the old, dilapidated facility.
Administrators at the Clark County Sheriff’s Office also renewed their request for the county council to authorize the hiring of 40 additional deputies. The council is set on Oct. 30 to consider potential funding avenues for the justice system and the sheriff’s office’s request, to include possible ballot measures in February.
“We have a lot of impacts that the public needs to know about if we are going to ask for a levy lift or public safety sales tax increase to get you the additional deputies you need to keep up,” Medvigy said to sheriff’s office leadership.
