This statement was sent by King County Executive Dow Constantine's office on May 30 regarding the King County Sheriff’s Office Executive Protective Unit.
This statement also was sent to KIRO Radio regarding their story about Constantine allegedly using elite detectives as personal chauffeurs.
The job of the King County Sheriff’s Office Executive Protective Unit includes driving as well as security. In any given day, the Executive can have one-on-one meetings, public engagements such as rallies, and community events such as Rotary Club speeches – often back-to-back. The security aspects of each event is unique, and we trust the EPU to staff and provide security appropriately. The detectives assigned to the EPU all have other ongoing cases and responsibilities at the KCSO, and we assume they are working on those during any down time. Of note, the City of Seattle and State of Washington provide full-time executive protection, but King County does not. That means staffing and scheduling is an ongoing challenge, and there are frequent changes in the calendar that demand a lot of flexibility. If any member of the EPU had concerns about their work situation, we assume those concerns would be brought up through the appropriate chain of command. As of today, we have not heard that any member of the EPU has raised issues.
Per your question about the Executive’s Office communicating with the KSCO about personnel matters: Deputy Executive Rachel Smith is the only member of the Executive’s Office responsible for communicating with the EPU. She never made any request around staffing. To further affirm - no member of the Executive’s Office reached out to the EPU or KCSO at any time to request any member of EPU change assignments.
Here is what the King County Sheriff’s Office sent to KIRO after they reached out to Sgt. Devore, who is head of the Executive Protection Unit. Let me know if there is anything else.
KCSO provides a security detail that does include a vehicle to the executive. We are responsible for his security, driving, and the vetting of all TA's associated with his office. This is generally 1 FTE but could rise to 6 FTE depending on the event and/or threat level. Dignitary protection details are an overall function of the Criminal Intelligence Unit but all of the detectives hold different specialties for KCSO. It is a plainclothes unit and assignment to the team is strictly voluntary.
Either myself or Detective Brown handles the daily scheduling. The Executive's office has not had any influence over the personnel I've place there. The points in her email are not factual, specifically the notion that the Executives office has requested that I remove [redacted] from the detail. Simply, has not happened. While the detectives may at times get frustrated with scheduling changes or extensions, none of them have requested to be removed from the detail.
Sgt. CJ Devore
King County Sheriff's Office
Criminal Intelligence Unit