Sheriff's Office needs to change, panel says

There is general consensus that the King County Sheriff's Office needs an independent body to oversee the way the department investigates officer misconduct and metes out discipline, but a group of citizen-experts has yet to decide what form the oversight should take.

"There's no single, magic bullet," nor is there a police department anywhere in the country with a ready-made model of independent oversight that can be implemented here, said Randy Revelle, a former King County executive and chairman of a blue-ribbon panel charged with recommending ways to improve how the Sheriff's Office deals with misconduct and discipline.

On Monday, Revelle and retired state Supreme Court Justice Faith Ireland presented the Metropolitan King County Council with eight preliminary recommendations, many focusing on ways to prevent police misconduct.

"There are no free lunches," said Revelle, noting that some of the panel's recommendations will require "real money" — such as creating an oversight body, performing internal audits and creating more supervisory positions to reduce the number of deputies each patrol sergeant is responsible for managing.

Panel's preliminary recommendations

Members of a panel charged with recommending improvements for the King County Sheriff's Office presented eight preliminary findings to the Metropolitan King County Council on Monday. The recommendations are:

• Conduct a "cultural audit" to gain an understanding of the attitudes and values within the department that influence employee behavior.

• Strengthen supervision by reducing the number of deputies supervised by each patrol sergeant.

• Develop and implement an early-intervention system to track and improve officers' performance and strengthen supervision.

• Improve the labor environment and strengthen the department's role in arbitration.

• Improve the process for encouraging, investigating and responding to citizen complaints, including tracking and classification of complaints.

• Strengthen internal oversight by funding an Inspectional Services Unit to conduct audits of every functional unit in the Sheriff's Office.

• Create effective and independent oversight of the department's misconduct and discipline process.

• Improve transparency to make it easier for citizens to use, understand and support the department's discipline process.

Revelle and Ireland head the 10-person panel whose members were selected by King County Executive Ron Sims, King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng and the County Council. King County Sheriff Sue Rahr asked that the panel be formed in January largely in response to a series of stories published by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer alleging officer misconduct and breakdowns in discipline and accountability — stories Rahr has said wrongly portrayed her department as a place where misconduct is tolerated.

Since convening in March, the panel has examined oversight and discipline procedures in other police departments, consulted with a variety of groups — from the American Civil Liberties Union to the International Association of Police Chiefs — conducted three public hearings and solicited confidential comments from people inside the Sheriff's Office.

The Sheriff's Office isn't "riddled with bad cops, nor is it a model department that doesn't need any improvement," Revelle said. Noting that the Sheriff's Office needs to make it easier for citizens to file complaints, Revelle said there are no simple solutions to handling such complaints. Instead, a number of smaller improvements are necessary, such as implementing an "early-warning system" to track and improve deputies' work performance and improving county Web sites so citizens can easily access information about the sheriff's disciplinary procedures.

The panel's work has already led to changes in the Sheriff's Office, Rahr said after Monday's council briefing. The department has adopted new procedures to track minor misconduct complaints, such as rude behavior, and Rahr recently submitted a budget proposal asking for eight more supervisors. Right now, it's not uncommon for one sergeant to manage 10, 15 or 20 deputies spread across 1,000 square miles, she said, while nationally sergeants typically supervise seven or eight officers.

"It'd be a terrible shame if these recommendations weren't" implemented, Rahr said. "I think it's a great idea to hold myself and the council accountable for the follow-through."

The panel is expected to finalize its recommendations by the end of August. To increase the likelihood that the recommendations will be implemented, Revelle asked that the panel be reconvened in a year to gauge the county's progress.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com