New King County Sheriff promises transparency for department
Nov 8, 2012, 6:26 AM | Updated: 7:53 am
King County Sheriff-elect John Urquhart is promising a new transparency and new policies to assure the public the department "is doing everything right." (Urquhart campaign image)
(Urquhart campaign image)
King County Sheriff-elect John Urquhart is promising a new transparency and new policies to assure the public the department “is doing everything right.”
Urquhart, the retired sergeant who served for years as the department’s spokesman, says while he was hopeful for victory, he could never have expected to win in a landslide over Sheriff Steve Strachan.
“We had hoped to win but to have those kind of numbers, that’s very impressive. And it shows we got our message out there.”
Urquhart says he plans to improve community relations by adding civilians to the sheriff’s hiring board and shooting review board as well as a new use of force review board. He says the department needs to convince the community it is doing everything right and be as transparent as possible.
He also says the department needs to catch up when it comes to best practices for policing.
“Policing across the country is changing, and in the Northwest we haven’t caught up with that yet. That’s what I intend to do is make sure we’re using the state of the art best practices that other police departments are using.”
The latest election results show Urquhart with a 55-41 percent margin of victory over Strachan.
