Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs Semi-Annual Awards Banquet

May 21, 2008

*As Written*

Good Evening, and thank you Sheriff (Franklin County Sheriff Richard Lathim) for the kind introduction.

I�m very pleased to be here tonight. We work so well and so closely on so many issues that it feels a little like I�m in the company of extended family.

I�d like to start by congratulating Colleen (Wilson) as she takes the reins as president of the association.

Colleen and I go back to my days as Attorney General and hers at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission.

Colleen came to the Training Commission at a challenging time -- and she stepped up to the challenges and made the Commission much more effective.

Colleen, by the way, has the distinction of breaking an important glass ceiling. She was the first woman to be a chief of police in our state (City of Monroe), and she is the first woman to be president of this association.

There�s a little story to give us a glimpse of Colleen�s character.

When she was police chief in Monroe, her staff asked her if she�d be willing to parachute from an airplane to raise money for the Special Olympics.

Now, Colleen�s pretty fearless, but she really, really doesn�t like high places. She thought about it a little more and hedging her bets, she told her staff it would take a whole lot of money � like maybe $10,000 � to get her to jump from an airplane.

Well guess what? The staff got $10,000 in pledges!

Oh man! What now?

Well, Colleen, true to her word, climbed on what she described as a rickety old airplane, put on a parachute, made peace with her maker, and jumped.

By the way, she invited me to jump with her, but I declined. I don�t like high places either, not even for ten grand.

Congratulations, Colleen! You broke the glass ceiling, you�re now the new president of WASPC -- and you cheated death too.

As I said, I�m genuinely happy to be here with such a great group of people. I can say that WASPC is a true friend, and that you�ve been there for us when we�ve needed you most.

As somebody in our office put it � Need some quick help on a criminal justice issue? Just dial 9-1-1 and get WASPC in here!

Seriously, you have taken to heart my strong belief that in setting policy, we need to hear from the experts and find out what they think will work and what we need to make it work.

And because you are willing to step up and partner with us, we have an impressive record of accomplishments to keep Washington families safer.

Public safety has been one of my top priorities since my days as Attorney General. One thing that has always driven me is my concern for the safety of children, who suffer the effects of crime not only directly, but in many other ways too.

And all of you here tonight have worked with me, and I with you, to make our children -- and all of our citizens safer.

And both you and I fully understand something that is so basic to effective public safety. And this understanding is the reason we work well together.

We both understand that Public Safety is not the job of a few � but of all of us.

Those of you in the uniforms are the leaders � the thin blue line � but you can�t do it alone.

It takes the buy-in -- and tie-in -- of communities, legislators, local governments, state government, and the federal government to truly protect Washingtonians.

We understand this very well, and the results we�ve achieved show in many ways.

�From the impressive reduction in crime rates in our state last year to the work we are doing together to enlist the help of our communities to keep our streets and neighborhoods safer.

A great example of a result that came from us working together and bringing all voices to the table was legislation we passed this year to get a better handle on our gang problem.

We all wanted to strengthen law enforcement�s hand to combat gang violence and illegal activities.

But you and I, working together and with our communities, were also able to convince the Legislature that enforcement alone was not enough�

�That we needed to work with communities to intervene to prevent kids from joining gangs in the first place, or help them leave gangs if they�re already in them.

I�m grateful to the men and women of WASPC for helping with this critical legislation, and it is fitting that we�re talking about it here in Yakima � where we are determined to address a growing problem.

Let�s talk about the issue of sex offenders, and all we�ve accomplished together in this very difficult area.

It�s a highly emotional issue, and rightly so. However, sometimes in the heat of the moment, proposals are made that -- upon closer scrutiny -- not only won�t work but will deplete resources needed to do what will work.

You have been immensely helpful to all of us in Olympia in this area. You are the people who have the knowledge and the credibility to help us take actions that will make Washington families safer from sex offenders.

Together we:

Launched Operation Crackdown last fall to seek out and arrest sex offenders on warrant status and other dangerous felons. This operation continues � funded by an additional $200,000 in state money coming in July. So far, sweeps in 18 counties have resulted in 277 arrests.

Thanks to you and the work of our sex offender task force led by Kitsap County Prosecutor Russ Hauge, we followed up by winning $5 million in funding to allow local law enforcement across the state to verify in person the addresses of all registered sex offenders.

Every registered sex offender in the state will be regularly contacted by local law enforcement to ensure offenders are where they say they are.

It�s one thing for the Legislature to promise to do something about monitoring sex offenders, but without the resources, it�s just an empty promise.

But now, thanks to our partnership with the Legislature, we have the resources to use electronic monitoring to keep a very close eye on some sex offenders under community supervision.

We know that if used thoughtfully, electronic monitoring is very effective, and that�s thanks to you as much as to our Department of Corrections.

In fact, we had an example in Spokane recently. A GPS showed us an offender was spending a large amount of time in one area.

A community corrections officer went out to look and found the offender was hiding in the bushes watching young children and women at a facility. The offender was confronted with the information and admitted it was a violation of his release conditions.

One of your priorities this year was creation of a new sex offender registry website to link all county registry websites and the state website. Because you explained its importance, I was happy to support the funding to make it happen.

When it is up and running, the statewide system will be updated at the moment information is entered into the system.

This will ensure uniformity of information across the state and provide Washingtonians with more accurate and timely information about registered sex offenders.

The system will also automatically send notices to victims and others in the community through mail and email when an offender moves into the community.

Creation of this system comes two years after all of us, working together, increased the penalty for sex offenders who failed to register, assuring that second and subsequent offenses result in prison time.

Among other successes we have accomplished together in the past three years:

We finally won legislation to make it much more costly for motorists to elude law enforcement and endanger the public. Now, drivers who elude police are subject to stiff sentence enhancements.

Speaking of our highways, last year we cracked down on auto theft by increasing penalties, and also are giving grants to local jurisdictions to combat auto theft.

We partnered to provide funding last year to eliminate the backlog at the Basic Law Enforcement Academy. With your help, I intervened mid session with budget committees to get the money in the budget. We added funds this year to make sure the backlog does not re-emerge.

Speaking of partnerships -- I want you to know I have been urging Congressional leaders and our delegation to restore sufficient Byrne Grant funding to help our rural communities combat the meth epidemic and other crime.

The Byrne Grants represent a longstanding partnership between the states and the federal government.

I�m pleased that the Senate Appropriations Committee recently agreed to $490 million in supplemental funds for this program, compared to the greatly reduced $170 million in the initial 2008 appropriation. I'm hopeful Congress and the White House will step up.

We�ve come a long way in the last three years by working together -- and we�re not done yet.

I�m looking forward to continuing our partnership next year. There may be fiscal challenges, as I�m sure you know all too well. But there is always competition for resources, even in good times.

I think you and I have already shown that when people sit down and work together to clearly identify the true priorities and find ways to address them, they can accomplish a whole lot. We have done that, and I assure you, our partnership is alive and well.

Because what we are accomplishing is nothing less than making our children, our communities, and the great State of Washington a safer place.

Thank You.