New technology in policing is coming to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office and plans for a regional training center will also benefit the county’s recruitment efforts for law enforcement, officials from the office said.
On June 1, Clark County Sheriff John Horch and his administrative staff spoke to a group of residents and lawmakers at the Cherry Grove Friends Church west of Battle Ground. They discussed the breadth of the sheriff’s office, from records collection to the agency’s K9 program.
Chief among those topics was the implementation of a body-worn camera program later this year. Following a pilot test earlier this year, the program will see a full rollout likely by fall, Clark County Sheriff’s Administrative Chief Mike McCabe said.
The sheriff’s office selected preeminent body camera company Axon as the vendor for its units. The deal goes beyond body cameras, as it includes dashboard cameras, upgraded tasers, upgrades to its interview room, drone data storage, virtual reality training, and an auditing program for use of the camera systems, McCabe said.
All uniformed personnel will wear a camera, “from the sheriff, all the way to the newest deputy,” McCabe said. The sheriff’s office currently has an authorized strength of 146 uniformed personnel, though it’s not at that capacity right now, he said.
Around 100 vehicles will also have a camera system installed, McCabe said, which will feature two front-facing cameras and one rear-facing one. The upgraded tasers have an improved range and also feature more contact points when shot to ensure the unit makes contact with a target.
Much of the upgrades have or will include revisions to the design by the time they are adopted by the sheriff’s office. The new hardware coincides with when the sheriff’s office will pick it up, so McCabe said Clark County will have the newest technology when the planned upgrades come online.
“This is pretty exciting, so Clark County is going to be leading in the technology department,” McCabe said.
The chief deputy hopes the addition of the suite of products will increase transparency within the agency and help build trust with the community.
“If we’re going to start with a program, why not start with the best technology that’s available? And so that’s what we intend to do,” McCabe said.
McCabe believes the cameras will be rolled out by fall. The process will start with patrol deputies.
Clark County Sheriff John Horch said the new systems will aid in transparency for the agency. Having video footage of an incident can answer questions in a fraction of the time the usual investigation would take.
“I’ve talked with police chiefs and sheriffs all around the country,” Horch said “They are so glad to have them. There were departments that were against them when they first came out. They all want them (now).”
McCabe noted the addition of the cameras and upgrades is possible because of a 0.1% sales tax increase Clark County residents approved last year.
“Without that passage of that tax, this program would not have been possible to fund on its own,” McCabe said.
The technology will augment a growing force of deputies, something that for several years prior, the sheriff’s office didn’t experience. Horch said the perception of police following the death of George Floyd in 2020 and the changes to laws governing the procedures of law enforcement led to a significant hit to morale.
There were months where the sheriff’s office didn’t have any applications for open positions, Horch said.
“We’re never going to completely stop crime. I think people understand that,” Horch said.
In the span of two years, the “lid” the sheriff’s office had on crime came off “and the criminal element just exploded,” he said.
The sheriff’s office received another blow to morale with the on-duty death of deputy Jeremy Brown in 2021. The detective was looking into a firearms theft when he was fatally shot in a confrontation with a suspect.
Recent adjustments of the laws passed in 2021 and gave momentum for the situation to start moving in the other direction. Horch said the sheriff’s office is now seeing more applications for open positions, in part due to an increase in compensation packages. The office once had one of the lowest packages for agencies in the region, he said.
“We made a comeback and you can feel it coming back,” Horch said.
Helping to turn the tides is a plan for a regional law enforcement training facility in Clark County. It currently takes about 18 months to two years to get a freshly-hired recruit on duty, Horch said. Much of that delay comes from the lack of openings at what was once the sole police academy near Seattle.
The sheriff said the facility would be staffed by local law enforcement, likely from the two largest agencies: the Clark County Sheriff’s Office and the Vancouver Police Department. Horch said the end goal is to have a dedicated complex to handle the training.
Shortly after Horch was hired to the sheriff’s office more than 30 years ago, then-sheriff Garry Lucas pushed for a regional academy. That push gained momentum after Gov. Jay Inslee’s endorsement last year, the current sheriff said. Locally, cities and the Clark County Council have voiced their support for the facility in the county.
Horch said it is expected to be announced this week that the Clark County facility will open between November and January.
“Now when we hire people, they can get there (to the academy) immediately,” Horch said.
