The Clark County Sheriff’s Office and the Clark County Historical Museum will be honoring the oldest sheriff’s office in Washington with a 175th anniversary celebration open to the public Dec. 3.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office was first established in 1849, making it the oldest law enforcement organization in the state of Washington. Through the decades, the sheriff’s office has grown dramatically, investigated historic crimes, utilized groundbreaking technology advancements. All that and more will be on display through exhibits and discussed with attendees of the anniversary event.
Clark County Sheriff John Horch said he is looking forward to enjoying time with both the community and retired members of the sheriff’s office while looking at the history of his agency.
“Looking at some of the timelines of things that have happened in Clark County, there’s been some significant events, you know, that are known around our country and worldwide,” he said. “ …We’re going to have people that — it’s open to everybody — but a lot of people that worked here in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s even and just talking with them and their perspective and seeing where we started with equipment years ago and now where we’re at. There’s a lot of history in the Clark County Sheriff’s Office and with the minimal amount of resources we’ve had, I think we’ve done pretty well.”
The timelines and displays of historical and significant events will garner the attention of a lot of visitors.
“Well, the DB Cooper incident happened. They were looking for him in both Clark and Cowlitz counties and that was in 1971-72,” Horch said. “We’ve had some significant events [like] Mount St. Helens. We’ve had quite a few and, unfortunately, you know, high-profile murder cases, Wesley Allen Dodd here in Clark County in 1989, and there’s a few others that are listed.”
The event will also honor the five Clark County deputies killed in the line of duty with pictures and a story attached for display.
Horch added that the anniversary will showcase the transformation of the resources and technology police work used to entail while also highlighting the advancements of where it is today.
Horch said that, when he started with the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, not every deputy had a portable radio on their belt and they had to sign to get them out as there weren’t enough to go around. Deputies had a radio in their car, no computer and had to handwrite all of their reports.
“Now, you just look at a patrol deputy and the computer and the access they have and all the technology that goes along with it, it’s just night and day,” Horch said. “Some of the recent things that have come in are our drone program that has helped us greatly, body-worn cameras, too, and just the specialized units like SWAT, marine, our special detectives units. All these things didn’t exist before.”
He added that a regular deputy would go on a call and handle the whole incident while now officers with specialized training respond to certain calls.
When the sheriff’s office started, the station housed a team of three with the sheriff and two deputies. Now the department has 237 employees when fully staffed with 153 sworn members to cover Clark County’s 656 square miles.
“[The event] is basically thanking the community for supporting our agency over the years. So, it’s a community event, but there will be retired law enforcement there, as well,” Horch said. “It’s also going to highlight that right now we have a police academy down here, and they’ve been asking for that for 40 to 50 years to get one down here and finally it’s happened. So, some recent great things have happened here, and we’re looking forward to continue to improve on that.”
The anniversary event will take place as an open house from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 3, at the Clark County Historical Museum, 1511 Main St. in Vancouver.
