No police brutality. No court judgments for racial profiling or wrongful arrest. No Department of Justice investigations or complaints by civil rights groups that our police have systematically, even occasionally targeted minority citizens.
It is widely recognized that we have a great police force that does its job very well. We have had no officer involved shootings since 1995, when police had to defend themselves against a man who had just shot another member of the community.
But wanting to show they are in step with the BLM and the “defund the police” movement, councilors have launched an ad hoc committee of the full council to explore “alternatives to law enforcement.” Ideas to be considered range from cutting the police budget to replacing police with social workers to disarming police or requiring them to keep handguns in the trunks of their patrol cars “until needed.”
Port Townsend police pride themselves on having adopted a “progressive” policing model a decade ago. Officers follow the rules and there has been no cause for severe discipline in recent years. The last officer to be disciplined left the force years ago. In the only recent case requiring outside review of use of force, the officer involved was cleared.
Chokeholds and strangleholds are prohibited except when lethal force is justified (e.g., an assailant has overpowered and is about to kill an officer). Officers are not permitted to shoot at or from moving vehicles except in the most extreme cases.
The Port Townsend Police Department has developed its own Crisis Intervention Training program. It far exceeds state standards. Officers must pass ten separate examinations. The only way to pass is to get every question 100% right.
An innovative R.A.D. Protocol was developed by a PTPD officer and an East Jefferson Fire Department chief in 2015. The Rage, Aggression, Delirium Protocol synthesizes police and medical responses to persons in crisis to resolve physical threats through medical intervention. It has been employed 76 times and is being studied as a model approach by other agencies.
PTPD officers undergo more training in de-escalation and alternatives to use of force than required by other departments. Internal policies require officers proactively to intercede to stop the use of excessive force by other officers. All officers wear body cameras. Every use of force is reviewed by supervisors. The police department already has a social worker on staff, as well as an unarmed community services officer.
Understaffed, with the city every day being patrolled at times by only a single officer working with no possibility of timely back up, they have kept our community–and themselves–safe. Crime and violence have soared around us in neighboring counties and Port Townsend is not Mayberry RFD. See our article on the surprising levels of crime here. Our city has its daily incidents of violence, plentiful property theft, and a severe drug and alcohol problem that is seldom acknowledged. But because of the high levels of skill and sensitivity of our police, many people in our community mistakenly believe we are virtually crime-free.
If It Aint’ Broke, What’s To Fix?
City Council may undo a decade of good work and draw opportunistic criminals to our community. In the first meeting of their ad hoc committee, city councilors revealed their factual ignorance about law enforcement.[You may watch the video at this link]. They are generally unaware of what police do. Only one city councilor has taken the opportunity to ride along with police to learn the challenges facing an officer patrolling alone. Councilors also revealed how uninformed they are about crime and violence in our city. Yet, they believe they are competent and wise enough to recreate law enforcement in an even “more progressive” way.
Interim Police Chief Troy Surber presented a report entitled “21st Century Policing.” It discussed how in response to former President Obama’s national task force on policing, Port Townsend police undertook substantial reforms of their own a decade ago.
It also revealed how seriously understaffed our department is. Two of its officers are still in training and not permitted to patrol alone. PTPD does not have enough sworn personnel to keep two patrol officers and a supervisor on duty at all times. That level of staffing is needed to avoid resorting to lethal force. A patrol officer facing a threat alone may have no alternative but to use his weapon to protect himself and others. In numbers, police can use less lethal means. But that also means exposing themselves to physical injury.
Chief Surber told Council how six officers were required to restrain an individual undergoing a mental health crisis that endangered the safety of hospital personnel. Without that number of officers, he said, it is likely lethal force would have been needed. Even with six officers on him, this individual managed to injure two of them to the extent they had to be removed from active duty. One officer remains unable to return to work three months later.
It would have been easier to shoot the assailant. Instead Port Townsend police employed their training to take a softer approach, but one that resulted in serious injury to themselves. That is the risk they take every time they don’t draw their weapon and instead use their bodies to resolve a confrontation.
Any reduction in the number of officers means the city is more likely to see isolated officers working without support and having to employ higher levels of force when confronted with threats to themselves and others.
Officers patrolling alone are always exposed to harm. Approaching a stopped vehicle is one of the most dangerous things an officer can do–so dangerous the Supreme Court of the United States has recognized that officers must be granted particularized exceptions to the Fourth Amendment. Yet some on city council would increase the risk to officers by stripping from them the ability to defend themselves when the occupant(s) of the vehicles pull out weapons or otherwise attack officers.
An officer acting alone at a traffic stop can lose his life if he is unable immediately to neutralize the threat. The idea of making him do his job with the tools he needs locked in his trunk is, in a word, insane. It devalues the lives of our officers. But it is a proposal city council has discussed.
Reason For Concern
The people who want to remake law enforcement in Port Townsend have a worrisome track record of not accomplishing anything that works well or at all.
This City Council has produced–even before the COVID crisis ravaged city finances–what has been reported as a $17 million deficit. City streets are in terrible disrepair and won’t see improvement any time in the future. In the case of one deteriorating street, City Council just gave up and closed it.
They’ve talked about affordable housing for years and accomplished nothing. All of these people once thought they could provide affordable housing affordably and quickly through the fiasco now known as the Cherry Street Project. If they couldn’t rehab an old building why should we have any confidence that their monkeying with law enforcement will produce anything that does not harm the community’s security and sense of personal safety?
The idea about disarming police was first articulated by City Councilor/Deputy Mayor David Faber. He was head of the group that ran the Boiler Room into the ground. He could not protect at-risk youth from older, sometimes dangerous, often intoxicated vagrants and as a result the organization collapsed. Why should we think he is any better at protecting citizens from criminals?
The former Executive Director of the failed Boiler Room, Amy Howard, is another City Councilor who wants to reshape law enforcement, though she could not keep open the doors of a simple non-profit.
Not one person on City Council has any training, education or experience in law enforcement. Not one of them would or could do the job police do. They are not asking our police what they need to do a better job (hint: enough funding to be adequately staffed). No, they are going to make it up as they go along.
With all the questions City Council wants answered, several omissions stand out. Not a single City Councilor asked Chief Surber what could be done to better protect our officers or what city hall could do to make Port Townsend a safer place for everyone. You’d think those would be priorities. That they are not says a lot about why we should be concerned.
Irresponsible Politicians Drive Gun Sales
Chief Surber presented a graph showing the unprecedented recent spike in gun purchases by Americans. The graph attributes the rapid arming of Americans to unrest surrounding COVID-19 and the George Floyd civil disturbances. 
People are indeed buying guns and ammunition like never before. I recently went shopping for a shotgun for home defense. Good luck finding any short-barreled or tactical 12 gauge shotgun in stock in any nearby gun retailer. The line at Sportsman’s Warehouse in Silverdale was 1.5 hours long and their display racks were mostly empty. Ammunition purchases were limited, if they weren’t already sold out. Every handgun with a laser had been sold long ago. (True also at every other store I checked except one fifty miles from my home that had a single lasered pistol left–until I snapped it up). Neither were there silhouette targets to be had in Jefferson or Clallam counties. People obviously are practicing with the weapons they have acquired.
Even on-line sources are sold out of many guns and most ammunition. Bids for used short-barreled and tactical shotguns on sites like gunbroker.com are almost twice the prices for the same weapons new a couple months ago.
According to data cited by Chief Surber, 3 million more guns than would be the normal rate of purchases have been acquired by Americans during the last three months. I would submit the reason was what was being discussed among people in the 1.5 hour line at Sportsmans Warehouse: crazy ideas like we are hearing from Port Townsend City Council that will handcuff police and force citizens to rely on themselves for protection of their lives and property. In Minneapolis, where that city council abandoned streets to rioters and is cutting its police force in half, citizens who just watched their city in flames are forming armed militias and barricading entrances into some neighborhoods. They recognize that ideological, irresponsible politicians have deprived them of the fundamental reason government exists, the maintenance of order and public safety.
If police are not safe, none of us are safe. Let us hope Port Townsend City Council comes to its senses. But don’t bet your life and your family’s safety on unlikely miracles.
Jim Scarantino was the editor and founder of Port Townsend Free Press. He is happy in his new role as just a contributor writing on topics of concern to him. He spent the first 25 years of his professional life as a trial attorney, then launched an online investigative news website that broke several national stories. He is also the author of three crime novels. He resides in Jefferson County. See our “About” page for more information.
San Jose, Ca. Here. So much admire the information you are getting out to your community …and beyond! It’s like the small ripple that grows into the killer wave that surfers patiently wait for. Thank you.