KING COUNTY, Wash. — With vacancies soaring at the King County Sheriff’s Office, acting King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall gave an update on how the mandatory COVID-19 vaccination mandate has impacted staffing and operations at the sheriff’s office during a King County Council committee meeting Tuesday.
During the council’s Government Accountability and Oversight Committee meeting, Cole-Tindall said her number one priority is finding a solution to recruit more deputies.
“It is a whole number of issues that’s come together at the same time and one thing that worries me, keeps me up at night is if our numbers continue to increase in the case of our commissioned vacancies, we are at risk of not being able to provide basic public service,” said Cole-Tindall.
Recently, King County council member Reagan Dunn pushed to end the firing of unvaccinated deputies due to the staffing shortages amid an uptick in violence in King County.
“I’ve disagreed with the policy, and the vaccine mandate at the sheriff’s office from the beginning because of the substantial loss of personnel,” said Dunn. “Whether they were forced into retirement … or the fear of disclosing information, or not granted an exemption and I see there’s (around) 112 deputy vacancies. It’s substantial.”
As of May 5, the King County Sheriff’s Office has 113 commissioned vacancies and 59 vacancies for professional staff members.
The Seattle Police Department is also looking to hire 125 officers this year.
357 officers have left the department over the last two years, according to Chief Adrian Diaz.