Audit: King County Sheriff's Office needs serious improvements
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SEATTLE -- It hasn't even been released yet, and already an audit of the King County Sheriff's Office is turning heads and raising eyebrows. The audit it is critical, harsh, and sets the stage for improvement.
When a deputy shoved Christopher Harris into a wall in Seattle in 2009, it left him with a critical brain injury. His family and friends raised red flags about the deputy's use of force.
Now we know an independent audit is doing the same. KOMO News obtained a copy of the critical, 70-page report that says the King County Sheriff's Office needs some serious improvements when looking at shootings, the use of force, and the internal reviews that follow.
"We're not denying that there's a problem," said King County councilwoman Julia Patterson. "We are not denying that we can improve. What we are saying is that we can improve. Hold us accountable. Watch us do the work."
Patterson sits on the board that commissioned the independent audit from PARC, a police review agency in Los Angeles. It's the second sheriff's audit in as many months. Both found serious faults in internal investigations and the use of force.
"We're a good department, but we can do better and we know it," said King County Sheriff Steven Strachan. "We are committed to the difficult changes to make those improvements in self correction, and learning from our critical incidents."
"They're not saying that the rank and file did anything wrong," said John Urquhart, who is a candidate for King County Sheriff. "They are going after, they are pointing out the failures of leadership inside the sheriff's office."
The audit says the sheriff's office is also "seriously deficient" in keeping records of officer-involved shootings, with some files destroyed or lost.
If one thing's been found, it's a sense that it's time to improve.
"We are not going to deny that there are problems," Patterson said. "We won't suggest that the audit or the report is wrong. We want people in King County to feel that they can trust their police officers."
The report also finds the review board that looks at officer-involved shootings is essentially "rubber-stamping" them, not interviewing in deputies in person, and waiting too long to get statements.
The full audit will be released publicly during a King County Council meeting Tuesday at 9:30 a.m.
When a deputy shoved Christopher Harris into a wall in Seattle in 2009, it left him with a critical brain injury. His family and friends raised red flags about the deputy's use of force.
Now we know an independent audit is doing the same. KOMO News obtained a copy of the critical, 70-page report that says the King County Sheriff's Office needs some serious improvements when looking at shootings, the use of force, and the internal reviews that follow.
"We're not denying that there's a problem," said King County councilwoman Julia Patterson. "We are not denying that we can improve. What we are saying is that we can improve. Hold us accountable. Watch us do the work."
Patterson sits on the board that commissioned the independent audit from PARC, a police review agency in Los Angeles. It's the second sheriff's audit in as many months. Both found serious faults in internal investigations and the use of force.
"We're a good department, but we can do better and we know it," said King County Sheriff Steven Strachan. "We are committed to the difficult changes to make those improvements in self correction, and learning from our critical incidents."
"They're not saying that the rank and file did anything wrong," said John Urquhart, who is a candidate for King County Sheriff. "They are going after, they are pointing out the failures of leadership inside the sheriff's office."
The audit says the sheriff's office is also "seriously deficient" in keeping records of officer-involved shootings, with some files destroyed or lost.
If one thing's been found, it's a sense that it's time to improve.
"We are not going to deny that there are problems," Patterson said. "We won't suggest that the audit or the report is wrong. We want people in King County to feel that they can trust their police officers."
The report also finds the review board that looks at officer-involved shootings is essentially "rubber-stamping" them, not interviewing in deputies in person, and waiting too long to get statements.
The full audit will be released publicly during a King County Council meeting Tuesday at 9:30 a.m.
Urquart is a thousand times better than Diaz. In fact, I would actually surmise that the KCSD is really a good tree with a few bad apples, unlike the SPD, which is a rotten tree being fed by a rotten unpopular city mayors office.
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That being said, the lack of real oversight is a serious red flag. Hopefully the KCSD can address (address, not window dress) these problems before they end up as bad as the SPD.
I wonder if Seattle city auditor and this auditor should compare notes to see if this is a pattern , All the Auditor state wide should have a meeting , and compare notes , this could reveal some interesting facts. =================================================== The problem I'm afraid is systemic and deeply intrenched in the very agency charged with protecting citizen form lawlessness ( BAD GUYS) all surrounding communities will simply follow spd's lead . ===================================== There are so many laws , so if a police officer really wants to make your life hard he or she can with the knowledge that you the citizen has little recourse even if he decides to make stuff up, or say he will skull F you, or just shoot first ask questions later. These Bad cops are the problem and honest cops don't stand a chance , You either condone it or you Quit. ================================================= The contempt between citizens and police officer is reaching a boiling point, even minor stops are becoming serious situations for both . all the while there are daily shootings and more violence in Seattle , Just seems like a dangerous place to go now.
 @realdeal The contempt between citizens and police is indeed at a boiling point.
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The difference is the police are armed, empowered and paid to protect the citizens, and theyve turned that responsibility into a privilege to abuse the citizens as they see fit.
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Lets not pretend police and citizens sit on equal footing. Its extremely difficult to hold police accountable, especially during the corrupt McGinn administration. It took the DOJ to even get them to change in the face of COUNTLESS abuses. On the other hand, police can freely hold citizens responsible, truthfully or dishonestly, whenever they want. Weve seen police assault, lie about charged, hide evidence, fabricate evidence and retaliate against whistleblowers over and over. Weve even seen police murder. Yet they face no consequences. Thats because they have a leverage that they were given, and they have chosen to abuse it in the most viscious way imaginable.
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The worst part about it is that they expect the citizenry to thank them and look the other way to their abuses. Thats beyond corruption. Its more than autocratic. Its sadistic. And the mayors office, the King County Council, and the Seattle city council back them 100% of the way.
 @realdeal Crime will always rise when the police departments have been proven corrupt over and over and trust is no longer there.Â
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Unfortunately , this is true. But what would suggest honest citizens could do to support and help clean up corruptions with in their community. Recall the mayor , letter email campaign to your congress man I think 99.9999% of all efforts will fail . So I focus on the only thing that will offer citizens a fighting chance against corruption Privatizes the VIDEO EVIDENCE DEPT or at least have rigorist over site of how it's stored and preserved . This is the only way to show what happened.
So now that the SPD has been raked over the coals and the DOJ has been brought into to help turn it into a kinder gentler, give the criminal a hug, kind of an organization it's time to work over the King County Sherrifs Dept. Can't wait to see where this goes.
 The SPD wasnt raked over the coals because they were 'too mean to criminals', they were raked over the coals because they were violating the rights of law abiding civilians and were caught openly engaging in political and racist policing. Shooting nonaggressive native americans, beating innocent unarmed latinos (and trying to hide the video), assaulting and even getting caught on tape lying about attacking gay pride parade goers and physically assaulting african americans and getting caught on tape admitting they did nothing wrong, but they would 'make something up' to cover their tracks.
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The SPD were almost as bad as criminals when it comes to civilian protesters and people of color in Seattle. Just another group looking to violate peoples rights and get away with it. The appeasement/defense of their irresponsible actions doesnt help.
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@ErichBritton
 @salishan  @ErichBritton are you talking about that homeless drugged out armed native american John Williams?  If he was such a "good" guy why was he homeless?
Urquhart for KCS. He is well known not to take crap about excellence in law enforcement. If the City had hired him instead of certifying status quo Diaz, DoJ probably wouldn't be up their butt right now.
Officer's need to be held accountable, that is a given. I have seen excessive use of force and stopped it, reported it, then didn't have a problem while they were fired. I would like to see departments help accountable for inaction as well. Or how about not providing training/equipment or leaving a grieving widow in Federal Way with nothing because her husband had a heart attack on duty during an officer involved shooting where he was on the perimeter, what about those bad guys we catch then our prosecutor doesn't want your town to spend the money to keep him in jail so they let him go, then that bad guy threatens to kill you and your family for six months? Inside and out things need to change. They need to change for the people and for the officer's who protect us.
 @Yeah_and With civilian law enforcement getting the recent cash, equipment, and training they got from the feds, plus what's in the pipe now; arrests and long detainments will surely increase. As it is now, the KCS deputies that upgraded from jail to street? These are always going to be some hardassed types. They know from experience that they'll get dead otherwise. I find that once you discount the few big incidences, the people relating to the LE are often just as responsible for a bad contact as not. NONE is hired for street duty under a demand for infinite patience. As professional observers, they can usually find mutual fault between two citizens in any altercation. As people say; the truth hurts. People who think they've been wronged often have not, under our laws. But even if the entire statute is handed them, they'll still have their back up. There are a million causes for bad pr that have nothing to do with the law enforcement person that was unlucky enough to have to show up there that day. When a LE shows up to take a complaint, they'll often take more abuse than their offender ever will.  It only works as a two way street, if we're ever gonna get anywhere.
There are problems in all organizations including police. Unfortunately, public servants always make headlines. The incident described is awful for sure, but what about the good the Sheriff's Department does on a daily basis.Â
 @mustang sally completely agree.  SPD and King County Dept do 99% good things to protect and serve.  The media is always only showing the bad and ugly.
 @ChrisP  @mustang sally Are you kidding? 20% of all SPD contacts with the public were shown to involve excessive force + they were openly engaging in racially biased policing. If I were to stomp a latino gentleman on video and hurl a racial slur I would be arrested for a hate crime, but if the SPD does it they get a paid vacation.
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This '99% of the SPD are good cops' pap is getting old. If 99% were 'good cops' then the 1% that arent are doing half the policing in the city.
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Defending bad cops and broken departments only propagates the problem.
 @salishan How can 99% of cops be good when 100% of cops knew there was no accountability and smiled to our faces daily while we were paying millions for this fictional accountability?Â
 @mustang sally The average citizen does good on a daily basis.  When we break the law we ARE held accountable.Â
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When police beat someone they already have under control it is ASSAULT
When police file false reports against citizens it is LYING UNDER OATH
When police hide dash cam videos it is TAMPERING WITH EVIDENCE
When an entire police or sheriffs department  takes MILLIONS in tax dollars for accountability that never existed that is FRAUD
When an officer "custodially sexually misconcucts" a a detained citizen it is RAPE
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These are criminal acts they are committing against citizens and none of these officers have ever been charged with any crime.  they have been getting away with it all these years that we have been paying settlement after settlement.Â
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Millions paid to the King County Sheriffs Department GONE!!
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The King County Sheriffs Department knowingly mislead the tax payers while the tax payers are PAYING for accountability. Â
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This is a very organized system fraud. Â How else can you explain this department wide scam? Â
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 @Andrew Bush  @mustang sally fact if you do what a cop says and dont have an attitude we wouldnt have this crap going on.
 @Andrew Bush  @mustang sally I vote Andrew Bush for King Co. Sheriff! Â
 @notez2cme I would rather be commisioner over Both the King County Sherriffs department AND the Seattle Police Department. Â
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We need someone to fire at will. Â There is NOTHING in their Union contracts that says we have to keep anyone who breaks our laws!
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 @Andrew Bush  @mustang sally I may not agree with you on other issues, but on this one, I do. When I saw the headline my first thought was "there is the 'well, DUH!' headline of the week."
I think within every organization there is room for improvement. LE is no exception. At least they admit they need it.
Admitting is step one and step two is instituting improvements. Agree all organizations need help!
How are they going to improve? Each and every time they have an excessive force case, their own department states that it is justified, each and every time, even though it is obvious it is not justified. The only way it will change is if they fire the cop each time there is an excessive force case, and being honest in the investigation. It is called accountability. And each officer needs to be held accountable for their own actions. the officers will then think twice.
The current Sheriff has had two devastating audits under his leadership and has lost two key Sheriff contracts: North Bend and King County Roads. Â Fire him in November. Â Vote Urquhart.
 @domino Urquhart. was the mouthpiece who mislead the entire county all these years.
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How could someone like that be trusted? Â He has no credibility now that we have so many interviews and statements claiming that we had accountability. Â
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On top of that his "anger issues" and inability to work with others has only cost time and money for the tax payers in the past. Â
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 @Andrew Bush  @domino i believe your thinking of that idiot Ed Troyer from PIERCE county
Because every officer in the state of WA trains from the same guys  at the WA law enforcement academy (made mostly of SPD veterans) in Burien + they all share the same police Union to prevent accountability, the policing problems of horrible departments like the SPD tend to exist to lesser amounts in other departments throughout the state. The problem is police culture and training. True, departmental attitudes can certainly provide a welcoming atmosphere for abuse of citizens, over use of excessive force, lying, intimidation and racism (the SPD is a golden example of that). But all law enforcement in WA are trained at the same place, which undoubtly contributes to the flaws.
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Personally, I would take the KCSD any day over the SPD and a few other bad-apple police departments (add the Tacoma PD, Spokane PD, the Pullman PD, the Lynnwood PD, the Bainbridge PD and the Grays Harbor PD to that list of gawdawful and frequently disgraceful PD's in the state). And as many have said, at least THEY are willing to admit honestly the problem. You wont see the SPD doing that, unless its media pap to throw off the newspapers and DOJ.Â
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That being said, there is still a problem that needs to be addressed here.
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 @salishan Actually State Patrol has their own academy in Shelton. The counties and cities go to BLEA in Burien, then to State Patrol to learn how to drive for a week.
The people who train them come from all different departments including SPD, and other cities and counties. There are usually a few troopers to teach traffic because that's what they do best.Â
Agreed, the culture needs to change, being a woman was difficult, but it's not impossible to get past if you do your job correctly.
I always thought it was "to protect and SERVE" I think a lot of LE have forgotten the serve part. We are public servants, period.Â
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I don't hear about excessive use of force accusations for the Tacoma PD. In Seattle it happens practically everyday.
 @salishan Sue Rahr left her job that at KCSO to run the police academy.  Enough said.
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 @2nd Baseman  @salishan Dude, what does your comment have to do with the subject then?
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 @2nd Baseman Christopher Harris did nothing to deserve what happened to him. Cops are human, not supernatural. They are capable of good and bad judgment like the rest of us.
This article reads like a broken record. Essentially, I got that the Sheriff's Dept. is not currently giving any details about the specific problems or incidents that are the focus of the audit, but they're spinning it already to seem like they're taking responsibility for the problems they don't want to discuss or deny. Maybe it is because of the writing. Maybe it is because we should all wait for the full audit to be released.
 @2nd Baseman you sound like a cop.  Keep posting. Â
 @2nd Baseman So anyone the police declare to be a criminal deserves to be shot on site? What is this IRAN? We already know that law enforcement will sometimes get it wrong or even lie to cover their actions.Â
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In America we have this thing called DUE PROCESS. Its in the constitution and part of what makes us America and not somalia. Might be worth checking out.
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 @2nd Baseman Yeah, support our LE! No matter how many innocent people go to jail, or how many racial slurs our LE use, they deserve our support. Give it to them... Or you'll be next!
This is why we have checks in our system of government. If there were no checks, you'd see drones flying around spying on American citizens on our own soil, red light cameras, 35 federal agencies and contractors collecting information on American citizens, people being strip searched to fly on airplanes, and road stops by the Border Patrol randomly looking at peoples' papers. Thank goodness that's not happening, or we might as well be in 1930s Germany. Whew!
 @jelisized WELL.SAID!
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Comment of the week.Â
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:awaiting abuse/bureaucracy apologists:
One thing I do have to give the Sheriff Dept credit for is the fact that they owned up to making mistakes and committing to fix them whereas the SPD fought the process every step of the way.
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Hopefully things change for the better.
This might be the case but I can tell you this much: The KCSO kicks the living hell out of the SPD. I live on the South border of the city near Skyway. The officers do a bang up job here, and with far fewer resources. They're much more professional than SPD officers. They're allowed to make more autonomous decisions in the field instead of waiting to be babysat be a Sgt. They go after real crime and criminals. Their response times put SPD to shame. They outshine SPD in every category. Maybe they can do better, but I'm just so used to citizens in the South end getting such incredibly poor service from SPD that I may be a bit jaded.
 @bagsofdirt Yet BOTH are equally corrupt when it comes to bilking the tax payers for a system of accountability that doesn't exist. Â
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Do you know which cost the tax payers more in lawsuits and settlements?Â
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@Andrew Bush No I don't. However, I don't see those indirect costs. What I see is how my quality of life is directly compromised every day by the inaction of the SPD. What are the direct costs to the public of violent crime, stolen goods, hit and run accidents which go uninvestigated etc. etc? I bet they are far higher than the lawsuits. I would venture that the lawsuits KC endures are the result of proactive police work and merely the cost of doing business in this day and age. If you're arresting more dirtbags, you're bound to hurt a few more as well....law of averages. Â
 @bagsofdirt  We arent talking about a few dirtbags.  We are talking about a systematic system of defrauding both the people they have abused who's freedom was taken and the tax payers.  All Taxpayers.Â
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There are a lot of people involved in this organized effort to block the public's right to have police officers who UPHOLD THE LAW! Â
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It is impossible for every officer not to have know there was no accountability. Â
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Those settlements those investigations, those lawyers those prosecutors those judges all add up to budget cuts across the board. Everyone is effected by King County Deputies Lawless actions.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj0mtxXEGE8
Just follow these easy steps and there should be no problem.Â
 @Kodiak That video doesnt work in SPD encounters. If you are a protesters, a student, a homeless person, a native, a latino or an african american, it really doesnt matter how you compose yourself, 20-50% of the SPD will treat you as if you are a dangerous criminal. Even if you are unarmed 80 year old protester, a known deaf native american woodcarver, a chicano man walking home at westlake, or just any african american.
 @Kodiak That has absolutely NOTHING to do with the issue here.Â
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Both candidates running to be sheriff and the entire king County Council knowledge the issues.
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The audit says the sheriff's office is also "seriously deficient" in keeping records of officer-involved shootings, with some files destroyed or lost.Â
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It also shows there are some serious flaws when looking at shootings, the use of force, and the internal reviews that follow.
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and you post this video? Â Â You need to catch up. Â
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 @Wickedwitch I also have never had a problem with King Co. Sheriff or SPD but that doesn't mean I (like you) ignore the elephant in the room. Both agencies have issues that have been determined to be serious enough to warrant outside agencies (DOJ) and an independent review to look at how they conduct themselves in public and there is a mound of evidence against both agencies that anyone with a brain should see that there is a big problem that needs to be address. Keep ignoring though; they want you too.Â
 @Wickedwitch Christopher Harris did not break any law.
@Wickedwitch um no, you're wrong. People who are crime victims can have a problem w/ an agency when they get sucky service. Whole communities can have a problem with an agency when they get sucky service. Â
 @bagsofdirt  @Wickedwitch When my ex-husbands house was broke into King Co. said they wouldn't investigate because they didn't have the time. They stole everything.  About a week later my ex husband was at Frye's and saw a lady with our daughter's computer. He took it, checked the serial number just to make sure and yep, it was hers. They grabbed it and ran. He chased them to the parking lot and got a plate. Guess what? Nobody cares. He won't give me the plate..I wish he would. I would find them. He said he was going to put up a sign that says "Beware of ex wife".Â
Over $5000 dollars worth of electronics. Our daughter's best friend's pics, who was killed. Worthless scumbags.
But I guess it wasn't that important, to either of them. Still want that plate.
 @Wickedwitch Actually you are wrong.  The people having a problem are the tax payers that are paying Millions and settlements for the corruption through the King County Sheriffs Departments. Â
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Of course everyone who demands accountability is a hater. Â All the bootlickers are saying it. Â
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