What Does Public Safety Mean? - Jani Hitchen, Pierce County Council
January 15, 2026
Good morning neighbors,
Thank you to all who attended last night in Lakewood. If you missed the in-person event, you can sign up to join me virtually on Saturday, January 17th, in the morning. The Zoom meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m. and should wrap up around 11 a.m. Register here.
What Public Safety Means
I wanted to share a little context because I am often questioned on the support of our law enforcement officers and accusations of not supporting them. This simply is not true.
Since I joined the Council—and for a few years before— this county has increased the Sheriff’s budget by millions. The Department's total budget for regular operations of staffing along has increased by $77 million since 2019.
We have approved pay raises, signing bonuses, retention bonuses, wellness staff, additional training, state-of-the-art physical therapy and medical supports after injuries, and so much more. However, the law enforcement side is just one part of the equation when it comes to public safety.
For the public safety system to work, we need officers to catch, transport and investigate crimes. But we also need the jail to house them while they are moving through the court system.
We need the Prosecuting Attorney's Office to bring charges, and we need public defenders to provide constitutionally mandated defense if they cannot afford an attorney. We also need the court system and all that goes with that.
Over 70% of our general fund goes to public safety. If we increase one part, there can be impacts on others. If we are arresting more people, we also need increased services in the jail because of staffing limitations. There is a balancing act that is done, and staffing in our jail is a significant issue.
Why Can’t We Hire More Officers?
We have been actively recruiting deputies since at least the late 1990s. We haven’t had a fully staffed Sheriff’s Department for well over two decades, and recruiting and hiring deputies has gotten even more challenging. I will remind all reading this that while you might live in a part of Pierce County that has its own law enforcement—like the police force for the city of Lakewood or the town of Steilacoom, each local jurisdiction has a variety of additional sources of funds that can be used to pay law enforcement officers.
At the county, we only have two sources: sales taxes and property taxes. Both are used to run the entirety of all our county services, or they are designated for specific tasks and MAY NOT be used for anything else. Additionally, the county does not get all of those taxes, even if the statement shows Pierce County as the recipient.
One of the biggest challenges that Pierce County faces is that we have city-like population in Parkland, Spanaway and South Hill, but are not allowed (per state law) to invest in public safety services for that level of population. The city of Lakewood has over 90 full time officers for a population of 64,000 people. For comparison, Parkland has 39,000, Spanaway has 34,000 and South Hill has 64,000.
On a day when we are fully staffed, we will have anywhere between 10-15 officers patrolling the greater Parkland, Spanaway, and Fredrickson areas. That math simply doesn’t work. But we are limited in what we can do, and frankly, we are getting to a point where community is demanding city like services.
We cannot take funds like the Parks Sales Tax and pay for more officers. We can’t take your sewer rates and hire more corrections officers. As a county, we are going to have to start looking at changes to services and supports that potentially can be shifted, but there are not a lot of options. The state has provided a new tool that this Council will be looking at in the near future, but that will be to keep the status-quo.
Hiring Woes
Why can’t you just pay more? I am asked this pretty regularly, and I will refer back to my comments above. We are currently offering $25,000 lateral (meaning an experienced and fully trained officer) and $10,000 new signing bonus to anyone that will come and work for the Pierce County Sheriff’s office in both law enforcement patrol and corrections. Lateral hires additionally receive 80 hours of sick leave available upon hire date, and an additional 80 hours of vacation leave available following six months of employment. There is also a $5,000 referral incentive available to an Pierce County employee which is awarded upon a candidates successful hire with the Sheriff’s Office.
We have amazing benefits, work hard to support all training, and provide vacation and supports for physical and mental health while working for us. But we cannot compete with cities. Cities that can charge utility taxes. Cities that can charge business and operations (B & O) taxes. Cities that do not have hundreds of miles to cover, and over a million people to provide services to.
You might have seen something right before the holidays about retention bonuses to our patrol deputies. This passed unanimously but paid using “fund-balance” which is a pot of money that is created over time mostly due to vacant county positions. It is a one-time source of funding.
We are also waiting for the last process to occur in contract negotiations, called Arbitration. This happens when an employer and a bargaining unit cannot come to an agreement. Because we must have law enforcement, the state provides an arbitrator and we anticipate getting that decision in the next few months. One of the barriers to potential new hires saying yes, is we don’t have a contract for them to compare.
We remain hopeful that we will receive this decision soon, and that we will be able to make the necessary changes to the budget quickly so we can continue to recruit new talent and retain the team we have. But law enforcement is just one part of the system, however, it is the one that gets the most attention. People want to call 9-1-1 and know someone is coming. We are committed to working with the entire system, trying to reduce crimes by getting at the causes, and making sure we are impacting the lives of offenders, so they do not repeat.
At the end of the day, if all it took was more police to be safe, the United States should be the safest place to live in the world. We imprison more people and hire more law enforcement than most countries. But we are not, so thinking about how we interrupt systems that cause people to commit crimes is high on my list.
Community Connections
MLK Beloved Community Celebration:Thursday, Jan. 15 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Pierce College Fort Steilacoom. There will be family friendly activities, performances and screens of civil rights videos.
Events for District 6 Pierce County Library: Jan. 15 to 31 you can find events at our libraries and available virtually.
Find Your Flow with Qi Gong: Wednesday, Jan. 21 from 12 to 12:30 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church at 12115 Park Ave in Parkland. This is in partnership with Blue Zones Parkland-Spanaway Project.
Volunteering at EFN - Repack Project: Thursday, Jan. 29 from 9 to 11 a.m. join the BlueZones team and the leadership of the Emergency Food Network to help them re-pack food for easy distribution across the county.
Tahoma Bird Alliance – Free Trees:
The Tahoma Bird Alliance is providing free bare root trees and it is time to order. Additional information and the order form may be found on their official website at:https://www.tahomabirdalliance.org/10k-trees.
Thanks again to those who joined me last night. I appreciate all who take the time to talk with me, ask questions and share ideas or concerns. I am going to continue to work on your behalf around many areas that were brought up in this newsletter, but if there are ideas or questions, please reach out.
In partnership,
Jani