King County Sheriff calls his agency a ‘shadow’ of former self

It seems nobody is ever happy with how much money they get, whether it’s a kids’ allowance, a salary or a county budget. While the economy is bouncing back, King County is cutting government jobs and one key department head doesn’t like it.

Criminal justice, including law enforcement, the sheriff and the courts, always gets the lion’s share of the county budget, usually about 3/4 of the general fund spending. It’s no different in Executive Dow Constantine’s 2015-’16 proposal. Law enforcement gets a slight increase over the last budget, but the sheriff told the County Council Wednesday that he’s still way understaffed.

“Obviously, I’m not super-excited about that. That is my goal, is to keep everybody safe. I can do that. Is it the budget that I’d like to have? No, but we’ll make do,” Sheriff John Urquhart said.

Over the last six years, the sheriff’s office has had to cut traffic patrols, the DUI squad, cold case investigations and the domestic violence unit.

“That is an incredibly important unit, one we should absolutely have. A domestic violence suspect is more likely, statistically, to go forward and commit other crimes of violence, up to and including homicide, than any other suspect for any other crime,” Urquhart stated.

Since 2008, he said the sheriff has lost 180 positions, mostly commissioned officers.

“We are a shell, a shadow of what we used to be as a police agency,” he lamented.

The sheriff’s office is getting a four percent increase in the county executive’s two-year proposal. Other county departments have been asked to identify millions of dollars in savings. The prosecuting attorney has decided to stop filing charges for a crime some call “driving while poor.” Formally, it’s Driving While License Suspended, 3rd Degree, a misdemeanor.

“That is the only area of the law where a failure to pay a civil fine can snowball into a criminal matter and the civil fines at stake are typically failing to pay a speeding ticket,” prosecutor Dan Satterberg told the council.

Satterberg considers his move a social equity decision since the law disproportionately affects the low income. He said his office filed about 3,000 of those cases last year. He estimated that ending that particular prosecution will eliminate the need for seven full time jobs in the public defender’s office and save about $1.5 million.

Instead of facing criminal prosecution and jail time, people who fail to pay their traffic fines will get an infraction of, perhaps, $500-$600 and deal with it as a civil matter, not in criminal court. The prosecutor’s office has recalled all outstanding warrants for DWLS-3.

Despite a growing economy, the proposed 2015-16 King County budget cuts about 500 jobs. The executive blames limits on property tax increases imposed by the state Legislature. In a statement, he called the tax system “profoundly broken.” He’s called on the state Legislature to repeal I-747, which established the 1 percent cap on property tax increases.

For the next several weeks, the County Council will hear from department heads and dissect the executive’s $8.9 billion budget, including a general fund spending plan of about $1.5 billion before final approval, probably in November.