Dunn supports King County Sheriff’s program to focus on threats against police

April 1, 2010

Summary

“RADAR” initiative would develop strategies to track violent offenders

Story

Metropolitan King County Councilman Reagan Dunn today introduced a motion supporting the efforts of the King County sheriff’s office to create a task force to investigate threats against police and elected officials.

The motion would help implement a program known as Risk Assessment, Deterrence and Referral (RADAR). Police, corrections officers and local officials are often targets of violent threats. The goal of RADAR is to help law enforcement personnel identify and track those individuals who show violent tendencies and make threats. The plan would also help develop strategies to be used by officers to help those individuals who act out to get mental health treatment.

“We must share information across state and federal jurisdictions in regards to violent individuals who want to do harm to law enforcement or elected officials,” said Dunn. “Being pro-active will not only save lives but help those in need of treatment. ”

RADAR would use police work and behavioral analysis to help identify individuals and officers in the program would be specially trained in de-escalating volatile situations.

“Having a science and behavioral based program like this in place could have helped identify Maurice Clemmons as a person with violent tendencies and alerted the Lakewood police before they were gunned down last year while enjoying a moment together before work in their local coffee shop,” said Dunn. “My motion underscores the need to couple this information gathering and assessment with human services that can assist individuals who are identified as having potential violent tendencies. Rather than just investigating or incarcerating them, we could actually get them into a program that can help them and protect our public officials and citizens.”

“Both the Justice Department and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have demonstrated that this approach to crime prevention will work,” said King County Sheriff Sue Rahr. “I am grateful for the support we are getting here and in Washington, D.C. for the RADAR project. It is time to look at new ways to save lives and prevent tragedies that were thought to be inevitable, but actually can be preventable.”

“While King County has been making significant steps to be pro-active when it comes to dealing with people engaged in criminal activities by not just incarcerating them but finding other avenues to provide help and counseling, it is time we take a broader regional view of these issues,” said Dunn. “This is another tool in our arsenal to help protect our law enforcement personnel, elected officials and the public.”