Unincorporated areas of King County are at the greatest risk of impact next year if a possible $30.2 million cut to the King County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) becomes a reality.
This year, King County will develop its biennium budget for 2026-27, and the county is facing a $150 million deficit in its general fund. Government agencies were told earlier this year to brace for large-scale budget cuts if the county is unable to come to a solution.
Fall City and other unincorporated parts of the Valley are served by the KCSO North Precinct, whose office is in Sammamish, though the precinct stretches through the Snoqualmie Valley and north to Woodinville and Skykomish. KCSO has already begun making staffing changes, including reducing deputies per shift at the North Precinct from six to five, as announced March 17.
At a Feb. 26 meeting of King County Council’s Budget and Fiscal Management Committee, King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall relayed to council members the impact a $30.2 million cut would have on the sheriff’s office.
“In just 10 months, 309 days from now, this reduction will increase risk, reduce readiness, reduce response times and coverage and adversely affect our community and our deputies’ safety,” Cole-Tindall said at the meeting.
These adverse effects would hit unincorporated parts of King County the hardest, Cole-Tindall said, because she would move about 50% of deputies serving unincorporated communities into different positions.
“Response times may be delayed when there is an obvious danger to a person’s life, including in-progress crimes like burglaries, domestic violence and other violent crimes,” she said.
“Response times to non-life threatening calls will be delayed or there may be no response at all. People will be told to submit reports online, but those reports that are filed may not be investigated. There will be no emphasis patrols, including traffic enforcement, and many other services will be significantly reduced or discontinued altogether.”
Despite these changes, KCSO is actually a growing agency, Undersheriff Jesse Anderson told the Snoqualmie Valley Record. The issue is not a lack of staffing, but rather restraints on where that growth can happen, he said.
Aside from serving unincorporated communities, KCSO provides services to several cities and agencies through contracts, which make up about 55% of KCSO general fund revenue. There isn’t a concern about layoffs, Anderson said, because the 50% of deputies being cut from unincorporated areas will be moved into contract positions.
Furthermore, Anderson expects the number of contracts to grow, potentially even in the Snoqualmie Valley, as KCSO is interested in providing policing services to North Bend.
The benefit of having several contract partners, Anderson said, is cross dispatching, a system in which KCSO partners share dispatch services across jurisdictions. This system allows officers from other areas of the North Precinct — like Sammamish or even Woodinville — to help with calls in Fall City if needed.
“I want to assure residents that when it comes to those high-priority life safety calls, we will do everything we can to get there as quickly as possible,” he said. “I’m not going to say that response times will remain the same, but we will be responding.”
The 2026-27 biennium budget will not be definitive until the end of the year, but Cole-Tindall and Anderson are preparing for the potential $30.2 million cut as best they can.
“I remember many times when people said we need to do more with less, and we have been doing that for over two decades now,” Cole-Tindall said at the Feb. 26 meeting. “Today, we are simply doing less with less.”
