Updates and Challenges facing your local sheriff's office

As we ring in a new year, I thought it might be a good time to provide you with some updates and challenges facing local law enforcement.

On the challenge front, Washington State continues to rank 51st in the nation for law enforcement officers per capita and its an area that has not improved in years. Thankfully, the staffing levels at LCSO have been fairly stable, but we live in a time when everyone is hiring and there are not enough qualified candidates to go around which has created an ultra-competitive environment. In fact, the market is so competitive that some inner-city jurisdictions are now offering $100k signing bonuses for certified peace officers to transfer to their agency.

Finding enough candidates in our current world is a tough task, but funding deputies is another challenge altogether and one I expect to be a growing concern as we move forward. The rising costs are something everyone of us feels on a personal level, but it is also taking its toll on county governments such as Lincoln County which are revenue poor and rely heavily on taxes to fund a growing budget. If there is any good news in this area, several legislators and the governor have publicly acknowledged the need for more law enforcement officers and recognize the financial issues with plans to discuss state hiring grants.

While I certainly hope the legislature addresses these issues, I know we cannot rely on them to solve the financial concerns facing local government, so we’ve been thinking outside the box and doing our part to contribute on top of cutting expenses. The first thing we have done is to contract with other agencies for jail services. This is also a growing need in our state, and our jail happens to have extra space at times that we can rent out to other jurisdictions to create revenue. This is something LCSO did quite a bit before COVID, but we have made an important change in keeping your safety in mind. We now require jurisdictions who bring inmates to us for housing, to also pick up those individuals once they have served their sentence. This allows us to offset jail expenses, while also not putting any further burden on the citizens or public services once they are released.

We also recently contracted with four neighboring agencies outside of Lincoln County for entry and maintenance of their court records (arrest warrants, protection orders etc.). The revenue from these four contracts allowed us to create a new records specialist position for this purpose, while also funding an existing staff member thus taking some burden off the county’s general fund.

On the update side, we have made strides in using the latest technology to assist jail staff in keeping inmates safe. We recently installed radar sensors in two jail cells through grant funds which are similar in appearance to a smoke detector but monitor vital signs of cell occupants and transmit real time data to staff. We plan to evaluate the effectiveness of these devices and expand to additional cells as grant dollars are available.

We are also in the process of evaluating and updating our radio repeaters throughout the county as communication is critical to all our operations. This is another area that can be tough for a small county to fund, but our plan is to upgrade towers as we can using emergency management grant funds as they are made available.

As you can probably tell, we rely on various grant funds to reduce our costs and are always seeking ways to expand essential services. The marine patrol program was just one grant funded area we focused on expanding last year through courtesy safety inspection events, and additional man hours on our patrol boat. We are happy to report that this resulted in an increase to our 2025 grant funding which will allow us to continue being present on our waterways while limiting the cost to taxpayers.

Long story short, public safety is expensive and comes with challenges, but we will continue to do everything we can to provide you with the best possible service.

We couldn’t do what we do without your support!

— Gabe Gants is the Sheriff at the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office. You can reach the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office at (509) 725-3501.