The three candidates seeking to replace Clark County Sheriff Chuck Atkins addressed issues facing the office during a June 23 candidate forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Clark County.
The three candidates all have decades of law enforcement experience.
Vancouver Police Cpl. Rey Reynolds, county sheriff’s deputy David Shook and sheriff’s chief criminal deputy John Horch addressed issues of crime response, the office’s aging jail infrastructure and a general lack of resources at the department, which includes staffing.
As a relative newcomer to the county, Shook joined the sheriff’s office in 2020 after decades of law enforcement experience in Oregon.
“It wasn’t very long before I recognized how broke the public services here in criminal justice was, and not effectively working,” Shook said.
Though increasing deputies’ pay is part of the solution to staffing shortages, Shook said he also wants to change the culture of the sheriff’s office.
“Once you do that, you’re going to attract quality employees, and quality people who want to be a part of this great community of Clark County,” Shook said.
Horch said what he’s seeing in the office is unprecedented in his 33 years with the department. The department is currently down 74 positions.
“Clark County Sheriff’s Office is my family and we’re hurting right now,” Horch said.
Horch said in the past year, he has worked to revamp the hiring practices at the sheriff’s office. He said the shortage is in part due to an “attack on law enforcement” seen through police reform legislation passed in 2021. Law enforcement locally and across the state have said the laws have kept officers from being effective due to the restrictions.
Horch said he’s been pushing the Clark County Council to support improved compensation packages for the sheriff’s office.
Reynolds said past practices at the sheriff’s office have been “deleterious to the atmosphere” of the department. He said he would “immediately” provide a supplemental budget request of about $4 million for greater compensation if he is elected.
Regarding the Clark County Jail, Reynolds said a roughly $425 million replacement of the jail is not the most prudent solution, but pursuing improvements in a more piecemeal approach would be more viable. He also suggested using some of the properties the office utilizes for other detainment needs to alleviate bed demand at the jail.
Shook said any increase in beds would require an increase in jail staff, which like the department as a whole, has been in a beleaguered state as of late.
“I think at some point once we make being a corrections officer an attractive position here in Clark County, we can add (that staffing),” Shook said.
Horch stressed planning for jail improvements would require consultation from professionals who know how to build such facilities.
“Getting in the room and strategizing with experts … not having people just with good ideas, and figuring out a pathway forward is what needs to happen,” Horch said.
On the increasing mental health needs and low-priority calls, Shook said the sheriff’s office needs to be
more flexible. He suggested the implementation of a civilian report-writing unit to help document the calls that come in.
Horch said the department is currently looking at co-responding units to address mental health calls. Much like the overarching issue at the sheriff’s office, staffing among mental health professionals for that response has proven the biggest hurdle.
Alongside building relationships with mental and behavioral health professionals, Reynolds is supportive of having officers who are dedicated to responding to those types of calls alongside the outside help.
Establishing units focused on property crimes is another improvement tied to an increase of staffing, Horch said.
Reynolds said he would put together an “intensive intervention task force,” which would specifically target different types of crime not being adequately addressed. That could help with escalating property crime, he said.
Shook favored a focus on the more organized instances of property crime as the best way to prioritize services with the limited resources the sheriff’s office currently has.
Candidates were also asked how they would enforce new gun laws banning the sale of high-capacity magazines, restricting production of hard-to-track “ghost guns” and prohibiting firearms at government buildings.
“If a law itself does not conform to the constitution, as your sheriff, I will not be enforcing that law,” Reynolds said.
Like other elected executives, Shook said the sheriff has the opportunity to evaluate laws, stressing he would also focus on their constitutionality.
Horch said a number of sheriffs who came out against the enforcement of those laws have since recanted their statements after being contacted by the state attorney general’s office. Through conversations with the county prosecuting attorney’s office, Horch said he believes he has the discretion needed to determine how the enforcement of state law would look.
“Do I have carte blanche to say a law is unconstitutional? No, I do not believe that. But there are ways that a sheriff has to use discernment and discretion when applying it to certain laws,” Horch said.
All three candidates will take part in Washington’s Aug. 2 primary. The top-two candidates will move onto the November general election.
