In just a few short weeks, Snohomish County residents will be casting their votes for Snohomish County Sheriff in this year's special election. Snohomish County Sheriff's Department Detective Sgt. Jim Upton, a Monroe resident, is challenging incumbent Sheriff Ty Trenary, who was appointed to the position last July.
Sgt. Upton served for over 21 years in the United States Navy, achieving the rank of Master Chief in 18 years. While stationed in Everett, Upton began serving as a volunteer reserve officer for the city of Snohomish, which eventually motivated him to seek out police work on a full time basis. He was hired by the city of Snohomish in 1998, where he worked for nearly four years before transitioning over to the Snohomish County Sheriff's Department in 2002.
Upton worked in Gold Bar for several years, and steadily earned greater levels of responsibility in the East County region. He is currently a Detective Sergeant in the south precinct property crimes division.
Sheriff Trenary has been a police officer for over 25 years, 23 of which have been with the Snohomish
County Sheriff's Department. Trenary has experience in various aspects of law enforcement including patrol, community policing and DARE education. After being promoted to Lieutenant in 2008, Trenary served as the contract Chief of Police for the city of Stanwood.
He was subsequently promoted to Captain in 2012, at which point he returned to the sheriff's office and oversaw patrol operations for both East and North Snohomish County. In 2013, he was appointed to the Snohomish County Sheriff's position after the seat was vacated by Executive John Lovick.
Trenary lives in Stanwood.
With two opposing gun initiatives on the ballot this year, I594 and I591, what are your thoughts on balancing the rights of gun owners and the safety of the community from gun violence?
Trenary: The issue of gun control continues to be a powerful discussion in our country. As the Sheriff, not only did I take an oath to support and defend our Constitution, I also provide this same oath to each new employee of the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office. My greatest concern is addressing mentally ill individuals and how we use the Snohomish County Jail. I have witnessed first-hand the impact of violence, but we desperately need to improve how the state of Washington provides for people with mental illness and how families of these individuals obtain help. Our jail cannot continue to be the largest mental health hospital in Snohomish County. Neither one of these initiatives addresses the issue. We need immediate fixes to our state's mental health regulations. Local and state government along with human services and law enforcement need to develop legislation that provides secure help for families who struggle with mental illness.
Upton: Initiative 591 is supported by rank-and-file law enforcement; it's the only ballot measure endorsed by law enforcement organizations. The more than 7,500 police and sheriffs who oppose I-594 know that criminals will still acquire firearms where they do now: the black market, straw purchasers, theft and illicit sources like gangs and drug dealers.
I-591 will prevent government gun confiscation without due process. This initiative affects Washington state citizens regardless of gun ownership. Legislation has been proposed on no less than three occasions, which would have allowed the police to enter your home and search your bedroom for lawfully-owned firearms without a search warrant or court order. This sort of activity insults individual rights, as well as due process, and cannot be permitted. I-591 protects background check uniformity and prevents unwarranted intrusion by the state or its subdivisions into temporary firearm loans to friends or in-laws. It stops the state from creating a universal gun registry that could enable future confiscation. It maintains public safety without invading individual privacy or turning law-abiding citizens into unwitting criminals. Maintaining balance between privacy rights and public safety is what provides integrity to this measure. We need to punish criminals, not the law abiding citizens.
Initiative I-594 is 18 pages of costly and confusing regulatory excess. It is punitive to lawful firearms owners. Want to lend your sister-in-law a gun to protect herself? Want to loan your adult sons shotguns to go hunting? I-594 makes you a criminal! A police officer who loans a personal firearm to a fellow officer would face criminal prosecution.
We all want guns out of the hands of violent criminals and the dangerously unstable who are a threat to citizens. This legislation is not the way to accomplish this. You can't change criminal behavior by criminalizing lawful behavior.
Much of east Snohomish County is a contract area for the Snohomish County Sheriff's Department. What are some ways that East County could be additionally supported? Are you willing to organize meetings within the East County communities to address their concerns?
Trenary: The first step is to ensure that we have enough patrol deputies working to be responsive to our public. As Sheriff, I immediately moved deputies back to patrol so that we could support our patrol efforts throughout Snohomish County. We need to improve how we investigate property crimes and this can be done by regionalizing our services and working more closely with city agencies. In North Snohomish County we are currently creating a partnership with Marysville, Lake Stevens, Stillaguamish Tribal PD, and Tulalip PD that will allow us to reduce property crime and work smarter. We plan to emulate similar programs in other parts of the county. In 2015, I plan to reopen the East Station in Monroe for better access to the public. I want to create full-service precincts and adopt an Office of Neighborhoods that will allow us to provide support to our neighborhood and block-watch programs.
Upton: All Snohomish County law enforcement agencies are experiencing reduced funding in these hard financial times. The Sheriff's Office is no different. The sour economy requires that we seek innovation and cooperation with other law enforcement agencies. In reality, we cannot (simply) hire more deputies. We have witnessed success in developing collaborative work assignments with sister agencies. This has proven to be effective in the recent past with units like SNOCAT (a collaborative unit with sister agencies to fight vehicle theft), and the Snohomish County Regional Drug Task Force.
Currently, the Sherriff's Office is in the process of creating a property crimes unit in the northern area of the county in cooperation with sister agencies. These represent an excellent means of pooling resources and working towards a common good. Collaborative support must also extend to regional law enforcement agencies. Too often, we fail to work together to resolve crime issues. Criminals do not respect geographic boundaries and their crimes stretch across city to county, as well as county-to-county boundaries.
One of my priorities is to work to see a deputy in all junior and senior high schools. We have witnessed great success in cities and regions where placement of the School Resource Deputy has occurred. I would like to geometrically extend this model. A consistent concern of residents is that of property crime and drug use/abuse. Often, these crimes are committed by youth in support of emerging drug abuse habits. The School Resource Deputy Program has been extremely successful in addressing these issues through a balanced message of education, mentoring and enforcement. Federal grants are available to partially fund these programs and the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office has experienced success in competing for these funds.
Finally, I would love to meet with communities everywhere in Snohomish County to not only address their concerns about crime, but to also ask for their assistance in fighting it. Even if I were able to place a deputy on every street corner, we would still experience crime and delinquency. The expansion of personnel rosters is not fiscally feasible. A more successful approach is to engage community residents and work together to curb crime. Community engagement is the key to any successful law enforcement agency.
With drug abuse as prolific as it has become throughout East County, citizens are becoming very outspoken at the lack of assistance from law enforcement and are beginning to form groups to address the issues themselves. Is this something you support? How do you plan to address the issues surrounding drug abuse and the subsequent increase in property crimes?
Trenary: We are experiencing a heroin epidemic in our County, State, and Country. Never before have heroin usage, overdoses, and addiction rates been as high in our County. In 2009, our Narcotics Task Force handled 17 heroin related cases, while in 2012 they handled 131. I believe that heroin is responsible for much of the crime in Snohomish County. Residential and commercial burglary, robbery, and auto theft are driven by heroin addicts looking for quick cash to fund their habit. In some instances, drug addiction drives 70 percent of the crime and that means that one out of every four families is impacted. This problem doesn't just impact our criminal justice system. The impacts of our heroin epidemic also affect our public health system, education, health care organizations, and all of our communities. Statistics indicate that our youth is at the greatest risk for this illegal drug problem. As the Snohomish County Sheriff, I continue to work with other agencies to combat the use of illegal drugs. We cannot arrest our way out of this problem and it will take coordination, just like we did in the 1990s with the meth epidemic to resolve this issue. I absolutely support the idea that we all need to work together. We made a difference in the fight against meth because everyone got involved and we can have the same impact with heroin.
Upton: Once again, communication is the key. I can understand and appreciate the frustration of residents. I have both lived and worked in Snohomish County for the majority of my law enforcement career. With that said, I support neighborhood watches and active citizens making a positive difference in their community. Volunteerism is admirable. However, I do not support vigilante justice and taking the law into one's own hands. The presence of concerned citizens walking their neighborhoods observing crime and calling 911 for assistance is exactly what we need. I'm all for community partnerships with concerned citizen groups!
The more pronounced problem is; what do we do as a society with the drug users once arrested? The county jail is NOT a rehabilitation center! We have lost multiple lives over the course of the recent past because we have not been equipped to handle these situations. The Sheriff's Office has made some effort to correct our deficiencies in addressing these issues. Unfortunately, we continue to fall short. Drug abuse is not a law enforcement problem, it is a societal problem.
We have witnessed success in both the juvenile and adult drug courts. These programs are administered by Snohomish County and emphasize a rehabilitation program while reserving jail time for those that repeatedly relapse or willingly fail to engage in their drug treatment programs. These judicial and rehabilitative efforts need to be expanded. As stated above, jail is not a long-term solution to drug addiction and the associated crimes that occur to support one's drug habit. Jail sentences do not solve these problems. Active and assisted rehabilitation programs represent a more productive approach. If elected, I will dedicate greater Sheriff's Office resources to these programs in an effort to deter crime.
Approximately 11 deaths have occurred within the last four years at the Snohomish County Jail. Can you talk about what improvements have been made or need to be made in order to decrease the frequency at which these deaths have been occurring? (Since this question was asked on Sept. 23, the death toll has risen by one.)
Trenary: We have to stop using the jail to solve all of our problems. The Snohomish County Jail is the largest mental health hospital in our county and we shouldn't be using it for that purpose. In the past year, we have had three independent reviews of how we use and operate the jail. Each review has provided a great list of improvements we need to make. We have aggressively implemented recommended changes that include medical screening in booking, increased medical staff, stricter standards, increased security, improved policies and training, and a medical doctor to manage our program. We recently added an enhanced medical records process. Not only did we obtain one of the best medical record systems available, but we did it much quicker and considerably under budget. In addition, because of the heroin epidemic, we have had to change the way we treat people with addictions after they are booked into our facility.
Upton: The loss of life at the Snohomish County Jail is a concern and an area that has generated a great deal of notoriety. It is unfortunate that the deaths continue to occur. The frequency of the incidents does cause me great concern and would represent a priority of my administration. If elected, my first action would be to conduct a national search for a Jail Director. The Snohomish County Jail is one of the larger county jails in the state and is in need of an experienced correctional professional. To more effectively address this issue, we would benefit from the day-to-day direction of a jail administrator that possesses tangible experience in running a correctional facility. This represents the critical first step of the solution plan.
In support of the new leadership and the concern for jail safety, I would move to secure professional accreditation of the Snohomish County Jail through a professional organization such as American Correctional Association. Opening the jail to a comprehensive review and improvement plan would allow for informed input and review of our present operation and its policies. The recent death toll at the jail is alarming and calls for comprehensive action, as opposed to selected policy changes.
Finally, greater training initiative must occur. Whenever training of staff in a law enforcement agency is reduced, we see litigious incidents rise. Professional training efforts can be increased without budget increases. The Sheriff's Office possesses numerous competent trainers that are capable of providing essential skills trainings on a more frequent basis. Basic and advanced training initiatives and programs serve to curb critical incidents. Greater dedication to training of our staff will help to provide a safer jail facility.
What are your top three priorities for the Snohomish County Sheriff's Department?
Trenary:
1) Add deputies back to patrol so that we can improve service and reduce response times. We have already made great progress, by prioritizing positions, improving our hiring process, and working to fill vacancies as quickly as possible.
2) Implement needed reform at our jail to protect inmates and provide accountability for our community. We have been given a clear list of recommendations from three independent audits which include jail medical and security. We are moving quickly to implement all of the recommended changes.
3) Develop and ensure community partnerships at every level. I want to develop our precincts so that people can get many of the services they can only get in Everett. Community policing creates greater trust and transparency and we need to do more to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our stakeholders. We also have to make better use of technology to provide better information to people that want it.
Upton:
1) Leadership. If elected, I will immediately unveil a comprehensive set of initiatives that are specifically aimed at improving both the efficiency of the Sheriff's Office, as well as citizen's safety throughout the county. As I stated above, action needs to replace the rhetoric. In the 20 Significant Changes in 60 Days Plan, you will witness progressive program and policy reforms. The "changesGÇ¥ will be equally divided between both the law enforcement and corrections divisions of the Sheriff's Office.
2) Accountability. Recently, we have witnessed a return to the lack of transparency within the Sheriff's Office. Our lack of sharing has created discord with the public we serve. Simply put, we need to do a much better job of communicating our approach, philosophy and the actions that we take. One of the emergent issues in the Sheriff's Office is the return to the concentric management approach, which gives rise to "group thinkGÇ¥ and the lack of an informed approach.
We, as a professional law enforcement agency, must demonstrate much greater transparency in our approach. Our service population deserves to be better informed as to our philosophy, approach and actions. The past success of the Sheriff's Office was predicated in a more representative law enforcement agency, which valued its public interactions. We must return to this approach if we are to be successful in the future.
3) Fiscal responsibility. Tough financial times highlight the need for economic reforms. The Sheriff's Office will need to face this reality for years to come. In recent administrations, we have faced far too much emphasis upon the promotion of personnel. In reality, we have become "top heavy.GÇ¥ Simply put, there are far too many administrators and too far too few line-level personnel. The end result has been increased waiting time in relation to calls for service and a reduced number of detectives to investigate crimes that are in need of follow-up. To make the best use of our resources, it will be necessary to engage in a rank restructuring of the Sheriff's Office. Unfortunately, this is the reality of economy that we work within.
The Sheriff's Office will need to place greater emphasis on the procurement of grant funding; selective augmenting of the current budget through successful grant writing will assist in creating better service. Of course, we must be prudent in the funding programs that we apply to avoid a financial burden when funds are exhausted.
The results of the 2014 special election will determine who will serve the final year of the current term. The seat will be on the ballot again in 2015 for the regular 4-year term. Some of the answers have been edited for length.
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