KTTH
Cannabis Safety Taskforce aims to prevent pot shop robberies in King County
May 19, 2022, 4:33 PM | Updated: 4:40 pm
The King County Council created a Cannabis Safety Taskforce to help protect pot shops after roughly 70 robberies since the beginning of 2022. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
The King County Council has officially passed legislation to create a Cannabis Safety Taskforce to help ease the wave of robberies across the region. Roughly 70 pot shops have been burglarized across Washington state since the start of 2022, according to the Washington CannaBusiness Association.
One of the primary sponsors of the taskforce, King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn, stopped by The Jason Rantz Show to discuss the bipartisan effort.
“We’re going to figure out ways to get enforcement initiatives and other processes in place to really guard and provide security at these pot shops,” Councilmember Dunn explained. “So there [will be] a liaison that can be there and be present to deter criminals who would prey on those high cash businesses.”
The Cannabis Safety Taskforce will bring together the King County Sheriff’s Office, the King County Prosecutor’s Office, members of the cannabis industry, and local community members, tasking them with coordinating their efforts with jurisdictions across the region. However, with crime at an all time high, does the King County Sheriff’s Office have the staff to camp out at dispensaries on a daily basis?
“The shootings are happening in and around marijuana dispensaries,” Dunn says. “I think the most basic requirement of local government is to protect the public, and it’s happening around these pot shops. So we better focus on those enforcement initiatives right now.”
There is some concern that newly appointed King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall will see the department lean towards a woke leftist agenda. While Dunn says he is worried about that possibility, the unanimous support of the taskforce is a good sign.
“She did acknowledge that the most important part of her job is protecting the public,” says Dunn of Sheriff Cole-Tindall’s promotion. “I hope that she has the strength and the independence of mind to push back on Executive Constantine and the council when they start talking about these far left policies and pushing social workers dealing with violent offenders, which is just a total fantasy of the left.”
