Tacoma’s new police chief sends message on enforcing drug laws, chop shops, public safety

In February, the City of Tacoma swore in a new chief of police after a unanimous vote by the city council, and, according to KIRO host John Curley, she has already hit the ground running.

“The John Curley Show” has been documenting a saga for years between a homeowner and a “chop shop” that has been plaguing his home. Just months into Patti Jackson’s newly sworn-in tenure, the police department and SWAT were at the scene, clearing out the neighboring house riddled with drugs, prostitution, and even murder.

“I was looking at your 35-year history, and you step in there, and I love the fact that the first thing you said is, ‘We want to look at all of these cases that have been gathering dust,'” Curley said. “‘We got to clear this stuff up,’ and you’re going to do that now.”

“I think what I do have that sticks with me is that it’s not just the details, right? It’s the frustration,” Jackson told Curley. “The frustration in his voice, and you even heard it then, even though he felt as if he had some reprieve. When somebody tells you that they’re living next to that, that their kids are living next to that, I think that that matters.”

Last week, Sean, the homeowner, told “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio he was “stunned” when he got a phone call from Jackson herself.

“I mean, I pulled over the car because I was in the car. And I was just shocked,” Sean said. “And so we had a long conversation. It was nice to be able to pour out my heart and just go, ‘Listen, we need help. We don’t know what to do. All our neighbors are just in this really terrible situation.'”

Sean said that a few weeks had gone by, and he started to lose hope that something would actually be done. Then, on Thursday morning, he had just woken up when he heard a loud boom.

“I was just getting my coffee, and the kids weren’t even awake yet. We heard this initial, just a very loud explosion,” he said. “I initially thought, Oh, is that a dumpster? Did somebody hit a car? I mean, I just didn’t know what to see. Come upstairs out of the office and look out our window, and there’s the SWAT, the FBI, and the DEA, all these things. So it’s just chaos.”

Sean said authorities blew out the windows of his neighbor’s house, where the chop shop existed, about four or five times.

“The boys came up, they grabbed their coffee, and we had a little bit of a show there for a couple of hours,” he said.

Around seven people were taken out of the house, Sean noted. He added that the nuisance property was completely surrounded.

“I’ve never seen so many different vehicles. It was quite an impressive operation,” Sean said.

Sean and his family are grateful the nightmare next door was finally addressed. He’s been trying to sell his house, and the neighboring property was dragging down its value. Now he’s waiting to see how things shake out.

“We’ve been waiting for this for so long, but now what do we do? We got to let this play out,” Sean said. “Do we sell our house, after that, and eventually get swooped up by an investor? I mean, there are so many ways this could play out, but then at the same time, we put so much heart into our home. Do we want to leave? I don’t know. It’s tough to say, but we’re just excited that finally, some action is happening.”

Additionally, Jackson has reinforced the department with new hires. She has five vacancies within the department, a far cry from the 40 it had before.

“I think that the most important factor right now, across the nation, is that people are feeling a lack of love for law enforcement,” Jackson said. “Everybody wants to fix us. Everybody wants to tell us what to do, but by God, you know that they just really don’t want to support what we’re doing.”

Enforcing drug laws

“Are you being told now, in your new position, by somebody that you have to answer to, don’t enforce these drug laws?” Curley asked.

“I am not,” Jackson replied. “I am being told, ‘Do what you need to do, do it in the right manner, the right fashion.’ I keep people posted with what they need to be posted with. I tell them what we’re doing. My philosophy is this, right? It is something that’s a coordinated effort, but it’s something that you know you have to trust. I’m expected to take these calls. You trusted me to be your Chief of Police. Let me do what I need to do.”

“You’re in a tough spot because you’re answering to people that are not on the street,” Curley said. “So here’s a hypothetical for you: If you had been told, we don’t enforce those [drug laws], would you take that order?”

“I don’t think that that’s really what they would want to tell me, and if they tell me that we’re not enforcing that, I think what we need to do is we need to come up with a game plan, and maybe they need to find a fit,” Jackson answered. “I don’t say that lightly. I love the men and women that I work for. I love this city, but if you’re tying my hands and you’re asking me not to do something that I’m paying a 400-strong agency, we’re paying them to do this, and then you tell them, ‘Oh, but don’t do it.’ That’s not something that I can look at myself in the mirror every day with.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to John Curley weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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