Edmonds names interim police chief amid troubling city-wide financial woes

The Edmonds Police Department (EPD) has found an acting chief as it searches for a permanent leader for the department, according to Edmonds Mayor Mike Rosen.

According to The Everett Herald, Assistant Chief Rod Sniffen will serve as the city’s acting police chief, starting in March. The current chief, Michelle Bennett, announced last October that she is officially retiring. Her last day on the job will be Feb. 28

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Rosen was seeking “continuity of operations, the need for effective leadership during this transition and a fair process for the eventual selection of the new regular Chief of Police” when identifying an interim chief for the EPD. Sniffen previously indicated he is not seeking the regular appointment of chief for the EPD.

“Assigning Assistant Chief Sniffen as acting chief ensures that no internal candidate has a real or perceived advantage while providing effective leadership during this transition,” Rosen said in a prepared statement.

Former Edmonds Mayor Mike Nelson appointed Bennett as chief of the police department in 2021. Working in local law enforcement since 1990, she served as Chief of Police for Maple Valley from 2004 to 2014 and Sammamish from 2016 to 2019 before becoming the Edmonds chief. Bennett was the first female police chief in Edmonds, Maple Valley and Sammamish.

But with the city fighting through a $13 million deficit in its budget, Bennett and EPD suffered through some tough departmental cutbacks. In total, the police department cut $3.6 million from its budget and lost several staff positions. Bennett cited the city’s budget woes, in addition to wanting to spend more time with her family, as her reason for leaving her post.

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This April, Edmonds residents will vote on whether the city’s fire department should annex into the regional fire authority, followed by another vote a few months later regarding a levy lid lift measure. If those measures fail, the city will look into other cost-cutting options, including disbanding the police department entirely.

Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest and producer of the Seattle Seahawks podcast, The Reset with Gee Scott. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.