‘Going great:’ Carnation’s police contract with Sheriff continues into third year

Published 8:30 am Thursday, April 14, 2016

In 2014, Carnation residents reported 23 incidents of burglary to the King County Sheriff’s Office. In 2015, they reported 19, a decrease of four incidents, but statistically, a reduction of more than 17 percent, and that was just one of the average stats. In its 2015 report to the city of Carnation, the King County Sheriff’s Office also noted that it closed 52 cases involving criminal charges filed in 2015, almost double the 28 that were reported in 2014.

The numbers may be small, but they are no less meaningful to the people who live and work in Carnation, or to the people assigned for the past two years to keep those numbers low.

“It’s very positive,” said Carnation City Manager Phil Messina, of Carnation’s agreement with the county for police services, “Scott in particular has been really good, he’s spent a lot of time in the community.”

Scott Allen, a sheriff’s deputy and the city’s only dedicated police officer, agreed, saying, “I think it’s been great.”

Allen, who served as a police officer in Carnation during its past contract with King County, 1999 to 2004, also said “It’s been a real collective effort.” The Carnation police station, above City Hall, has been used as a kind of hub for Sheriff’s officers patrolling the county, which Allen said, was one of his goals when he came to the city.

“The city’s getting all kinds of police service,” he said, because many officers, especially rookies, want to come to Carnation for the experience. “They’re out there pounding the pavement at night.”

“We have one officer, but if you look at it another way, we have about 500 officers we can call on,” said Messina.

The price tag for the police services contract, which includes Allen as the city’s dedicated officer, in 2015 was about $445,000 and Messina said it’s about the same for 2016, which includes $50,000 for emphasis patrols on nights and weekends.

With the additional patrol, though, the cost is still less than Carnation’s first year on the contract, which started Jan. 2, 2014, and cost roughly $486,000.

Robin Rask, a contracts manager with the sheriff’s office, explained that city has progressively needed less service each year of the contract.

“The workload is one of the major cost drivers,” Rask said. “It’s how we determine how much service the city or how much service the residents are requesting, how many times people call 911… Their dispatch calls for service were less than we had forecasted.”

Messina couldn’t speak directly to specific crimes in the city, but said “They’ve caught a couple of burglars and put a dent in crime and some other people have just left town.”

He said he’d like to see the level of service and the contract continue, just as it is. Allen agrees, although he added that he would like to see change at a higher level, specifically, the prosecution of drug crimes.

“It’s really hard these days to put any kind of bite into the drug problem the entire country has,” he said. “There are a lot of drug arrests that we’ve made, and the same with the burglaries, they’re out of jail the next day.”

Among the statistics in the 2015 report, Rask said, the number of aggravated assault reports dropped from four in 2014 to one last year, vehicle thefts had increased from two to three, collisions had dropped from eight to five, and robbery incidents, up 100 percent, went from zero in 2014 to one in 2015.

Carnation’s contract with the King County Sheriff’s Office will continue until one party gives an 18-month notification that it intends to cancel the contract. Prior to its contract with King County, Carnation contracted with the city of Duvall for police services from 2004 to 2013. Before 1999, Carnation had a city police force.