Council approves lease for new East Precinct Command Center

July 5, 2011

Summary

Sammamish location key part of reorganization of King County Sheriff in East King County

Story

The Metropolitan King County Council today gave its unanimous approval to a major step in the reorganization of the King County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) by approving a lease agreement with the city of Sammamish to house the KCSO’s East Precinct Command Center.

With a focus on increasing operational efficiencies and reducing costs, the Sheriff’s Office began a major reorganization in 2010. Part of the reorganization included the realignment of two precincts that covered ten communities in Northeast and Southeast King County into a single precinct. The lease agreement, and companion legislation to fund the costs associated with the consolidation of the two facilities, allow the reorganization to continue.

“The efficiencies captured by this new precinct arrangement benefit both the residents of unincorporated areas and the contract cities with increased presence of law enforcement,” said Councilmember Kathy Lambert, who represents Northeast King County and Sammamish. ”This innovative approach shares resources among our partner cities and revolutionizes the way we provide public safety services. Sheriff Rahr is to be commended for her creativity in improving services while also saving money and scarce resources.”

Along with the realignment of the precincts, the KCSO is changing its operational practices as well as the operational practices of its deputies. By moving to a centralized command center, while at the same time decentralizing individual operations, the department expects to achieve a number of operational benefits:

• Sergeants will be convening once a week, squad-based roll call at a decentralized location, rather than the daily roll call of all officers at a single location, thereby reducing mandatory drive time when an officer could be in their area of responsibility;
• Officers will have local report locations that are closer to their specific patrol areas;
• Physical space requirements for operations are dramatically reduced from 24,000 square feet to 5,200 square feet;
• Through the decentralized reporting, individual officers create connections with contract city officers and operations to increase collaboration; and
• Through having officers report to decentralized locations, the proactive value of the presence of law enforcement enhances all of our contract cities.

The move to Sammamish takes the Sheriff’s Office out of two locations that no longer meet the department’s needs. Precinct 2 in Kenmore is in a 36 year-old building, Precinct 3 in Maple Valley is housed in a 27 year-old facility.