Clark County Sheriff John Horch and colleagues spoke about recent crime trends, staffing updates, the success of the sheriff office’s drone program and more at a town hall event last week.
Clark County community members joined Horch, Sgt. Adam Beck and deputy and lead unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) pilot Rocky Futrell at a town hall event at the Crosspointe Baptist Church in Five Corners on Thursday, Dec. 14. The Five Corners town hall marked Horch’s fourth, after previous ones in Salmon Creek, Battle Ground and Camas earlier this year.
Juvenile crime trend
A law turning two years old at the new years has given law enforcement around the state of Washington some trouble with juveniles, especially in Clark County, as Horch and Futrell said the county has experienced a massive rise in crimes caused by youth.
RCW 13.40.740, regarding juvenile access to an attorney, has prevented law enforcement from questioning a juvenile based on probable cause of involvement in criminal activity and other circumstances.
“We are seeing more and more violent calls in Clark County, and a lot of them are actually being done by youth,” Futrell said.
Futrell mentioned that a majority of new-trend crimes are being committed by those under 20 years old. Juveniles have greater access to firearms, which has coincided with the rise of drive-by and other shootings in Clark County, he added.
“Violent juvenile crime has risen around here in the last few years,” Horch added.
Horch said he has met with the prosecuting attorney’s office on a monthly basis, but despite having a good professional relationship with the prosecuting attorney, Horch highly questions them on the juvenile justice system.
“ ‘What the hell is going on here? This is through the roof,’ ” Horch said in the town hall, quoting his question to the prosecuting attorney. “The people we have in juvenile detention are serious, serious gun violations, stabbings, rapes and what not. You’d have some, but it has gone through the roof.”
To find a cause, Horch said his office has been looking into national trends, but he believes a big reason has been the added protection to juveniles and the lack of prosecution.
“I believe that the juvenile law that was talked about earlier, always having to have a defense attorney or attorney present or before they give a statement, has hurt,” Horch said. “It’s even hurt some juveniles that have wanted to give a statement and confess to crimes, but they can’t use it. So it has hurt public safety. I hope our legislators look at that law and [will be] revamping it a bit.”
UAS program success
The sheriff’s office also reported success with the implementation of the UAS program. Currently, the sheriff’s office uses two drones.
Futrell said the use of drones have saved deputies and officers from disturbing sights that will impact mental health.
The sheriff’s office used a drone to see inside the house in Orchards where five were found deceased in an apparent murder-suicide on Dec. 3.
“I’m proud of the program that we have now because we didn’t have to have officers or deputies go into that house and experience that horrific scene firsthand,” said Futrell of the drone use on Dec. 3. “So, just from the mental health aspect of it alone, it’s huge that those officers didn’t have to just push into the house and find five deceased people and a horrific, horrific scene.”
The use of drones has also allowed deputies to avoid facing each threat they otherwise would encounter. Futrell added that drones are sometimes used to give information to those on the ground about a suspect's actions and locations.
“We have mitigated some calls that it’s my opinion that somebody would have been shot if we did not have the drone,” Futrell said. “We’ve had suspects walk out of houses armed with guns and patrol officers standing right around the corner, and, without that knowledge, that suspect would have walked around the corner with a pistol, and there likely would have been a shooting, and that’s happened more than once.”
On top of mitigating incidents, Futrell has used drones to search for lost children, dementia patients who have wandered off, and located suspects, making him proud of the program.
Staffing and more
For staffing, Horch said the department is seeing a positive rise, and morale among employees is increasing with the addition of deputies and more planned.
The sheriff’s office has 15 openings, and 13 candidate interviews this week. The process to fill open positions can take nine to 10 months if everything goes as planned, Horch added.
“[By] Jan. 16, we'll have our own local police academy, and we’ll have another one that goes this summer,” Horch said. “So, that’s great for people who get hired here. They can go to the police academy here and go home every night. They don’t have to go to Seattle for four or five nights.
“The police academy is five months. The time you’re hired takes a few months,” Horch added. “You go to the police academy for five months. You come out, training is three months, that’s eight. So you’re looking at almost nine, 10 months. And that’s if everything goes well. So it takes a long time and, on average, I’ll just say you lose about 30 to 35% of people that will be hired, make it through the academy and come out and train.”
