Rantz Exclusive: City of Edmonds may close police department; officers are livid, public in the dark

The city of Edmonds is considering a controversial cost-cutting measure: replacing its police department by contracting police services with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO). The Edmonds Police Association is outraged, warning that this move would significantly diminish the quality of police services for residents.

Faced with a $20 million budget deficit, city of Edmonds leaders are planning substantial workforce reductions and exploring drastic options, including shuttering the Edmonds Police Department. Both the City of Edmonds and the SCSO confirmed to “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH that a meeting between their offices is scheduled in the coming days to discuss the proposal.

Adding to the tension, the SCSO may not be the city’s first choice for a partnership.

Edmonds Police officers are concerned, angry

While a city spokesperson described the discussions as “exploratory at best,” the suggestion has already caused turmoil within the Edmonds Police Department and the SCSO.

Last week, the city held talks with the King County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) about a similar partnership — a meeting that reportedly irked the SCSO. Notably, Edmonds’ outgoing police Chief Michelle Bennett has ties to the KCSO, where she previously worked.

Many officers feel betrayed, with some dismissing the “exploratory” label, believing the city is seriously considering the plan. They place a considerable amount of blame on Bennett for seemingly endorsing the plan. Meanwhile, the Edmonds City Council is also eyeing another significant change: annexing into South County Fire for emergency services.

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Union reacts

Edmonds Police Officers Association President Officer Will Morris says his members are “upset about looking into contracting in general.” Morris represents 48 officers and 15 support staff, two of whom will be cut in 2025 due to budget constraints. He says there’s no reason for it to get to this point given there are still cost saving measures the city can take, but chooses not to.

“Our members really love serving in the community of Edmonds, and they’re very passionate about that. So not being able to (do) that under the Edmonds Police Department is very frustrating for that,” Morris exclusively tells “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH.

Morris believes there’s a high likelihood of dissolving the Edmonds Police Department for contracted services because the budget crisis can only be addressed with voter-approved new taxes and annexation of the fire services. But the mere notion of contracting police services has already caused officers to start looking for other jobs.

“I would say we have a good amount of officers who are already looking. If you’re looking at a levy and annexation that need to pass for us not to sustain any more cuts, I think that’s hard for them to really visualize how that works,” he said. “And at this time when there lots of agencies with lateral bonuses, with vacancies. How long do you wait to move when you can start building seniority and being in a new city that’s not having the financial struggles that we’re having?”

Complicating matters? City officials met with King County before Snohomish County.

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Snubbing Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office

Morris said the initial conversations start with the KCSO, instead of the SCSO. He learned that Edmonds Mayor Mike Rosen, the city’s finance director, Edmonds Police chief Bennett, and an undersheriff from KCSO met last week to discuss the idea. He said it did not go over well with his membership or the SCSO.

“I think there was some confusion, and people were upset, (saying,) ‘Well, why didn’t you reach out to us first?’ And I think Snohomish County is probably very interested in contracting out a city like Edmonds,” Morris explained, though a SCSO spokesperson denied feeling slighted.

A city of Edmonds spokesperson explained the decision in a statement to “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH. Bennett, who is retiring in early 2025, spent more than 30 years serving with the KCSO. The city of Shoreline also contracts with the KCSO.

“There is no specific agenda except to informally gather information and learn how their agreements with contracting have previously worked. The meeting with King Co was scheduled first simply due to Chief Bennett having previously worked at that agency and having existing relationships,” the spokesperson explained.

How many Edmonds police officers would lateral to become deputies? Not many

It’s not entirely clear how the SCSO could take on the contracted work, if it got to that point.

Sheriff Susanna Johnson previously explained to “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH that they are understaffed. The department currently has 29 open deputy sheriff positions.

The SCSO would likely rely on current Edmonds police officers to take over. But Morris believes only about 15 of his members would make a lateral move to the SCSO. He says the majority of his members want to work for a city, not a county.

It would be even worse if the city of Edmonds contracted with King County, according to Morris. He says no one would make the jump.

“In Snohomish County, we’re still able to put a lot of people in jail and police, and there is no inquest process. For a lot of people, those are big issues,” Morris said.

King County operates an inquest program that serves as a fact-finding inquiry after suspects are killed by deputies. Law enforcement officers argue the inquest is set up to target cops for prosecution, particularly since they say it was the result of Black Lives Matter activism embraced by King County Executive Dow Constantine.

Budgetary crisis

Edmonds wouldn’t consider ditching its police department if not for a major budget deficit.

Morris says part of the budgetary issues stem from poor decisions made by the city to invest in equipment and programs that the department wasn’t ready to implement. As a result, he says the department has expensive equipment like drones, dive equipment, and bicycles that are hardly touched.

“We needed more officers. I think close to 20 officers we’ve hired over the last two or three years … we’ve just been running at our minimum staffing and getting by for a couple of years. So when you go to implement new programs, they require the people to be in place and be trained, and the majority of our time was training new officers to get them on the road so we wouldn’t always be operating at minimum staffing,” Morris explained.

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How will Edmonds residents react?

Edmonds residents don’t appear especially happy with a city plan annexing into South County Fire. At a council meeting last week, residents demanded the city reconsider the plan, arguing they’d be better served with an Edmonds Fire Department.

It’s unlikely they’d be especially enthused with a plan to contract out police services. The city, for its part, has been keeping the plan quiet. Morris has a direct message to residents.

“We love serving you, we want to continue to serve you,” Morris said. “We had a membership meeting earlier this week where we talked about the realities of our financial situation, and from our membership’s perspective, the city has not cut enough, even from the police department. As hard as that is to say, we think it’s a disservice to the citizens of Edmonds that we’re not cutting more to allow us to have a police department moving forward.”

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