By Terryl Asla
tasla@soudnpublishing.com
BREMERTON — Law enforcement officers across Kitsap County are wearing mourning badges. Members of the Kitsap County Deputy Sheriff’s Guild may send a representative to memorial services in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
“We’re all just reeling from the whole thing and trying to comprehend it,” Poulsbo Deputy Chief Andy Pate said of the recent shootings of police officers in Dallas, Baton Rouge and Kansas City.
Port Orchard Police Cmdr. Dale Schuster said, “The targeting of police officers across the nation has hit all of us emotionally. The officers are more vigilant about their surroundings and use extra caution when responding to calls. That said, we will continue to come to work each and every day in order to serve the community we love. The divisiveness and hate will not win the day.”
Law enforcement officers say the racial tensions that have eroded relationships between police departments and people of color elsewhere in the country don’t exist here.
“In fact, we’ve had really tremendous support from black organizations and churches,” sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Scott Wilson said. “We recently had a ‘Black Lives Matter’ march at Silverdale’s Waterfront Park. They had signs and marched along Silverdale Way and the Sheriff’s Department lent support with the traffic.”
Bremerton Police Chief Steve Strachan concurs on the matter of community support for local law enforcement.
“Last Sunday, I had been asked by the president of an African-American church to talk to their congregation about the incident in Dallas. Just about an hour before I went to church, news about the Baton Rouge shootings came out. The pastor and the deacon and the congregation, they were all so friendly. The message I got was that we all are in this together. Then the African-American Ministries Alliance had a vigil. It was very well attended.”
He added, “Right now, everybody feels off balance. I may be being optimistic, but I feel locally we are moving from confrontations to solutions … Our officers are going home feeling tired but great at night, because so many people are coming up and wanting to give them hugs and say, ‘Thank you.’ ”
Still, law enforcement officers in Kitsap regularly train for all eventualities.
Law enforcement officers in Kitsap have used lethal force seven times since Jan. 1, 2010. In five cases, the suspects were killed. Two sheriff’s officers were shot and injured in a confrontation with a kidnapping suspect on Jan. 23, 2011, in Port Orchard. State Trooper Tony Radulescu, 44, was fatally shot Feb. 23, 2012 during a traffic stop in Gorst; the suspect later killed himself.
“We’ve been training for many years for an active shooter situation — both the SWAT team and patrol deputies,” Wilson said. “It used to be that patrol officers would contain the situation and wait for the SWAT team. Columbine taught us that we can’t wait,” he said, referring to the April 20, 1999 murder of 12 students and one teacher at Columbine High School in Colorado.
“Now, [first responders] go in with what we’ve got.”
Law enforcement agencies also have a system of response in place in the event an officer is killed or injured in the line of duty. They are assisted in this by a foundation of volunteers.
The Behind the Badge Foundation (www.behindthebadgefoundation.org) is a non-profit which, according to its website, “provides comprehensive support to Washington state’s law enforcement agencies, families and communities after a line of duty death or when an officer suffers a serious injury.”
Wilson said of the foundation, “They coordinate … and take over much of the work [of support]. I can’t say enough good about them.”
— Bob Smith, Sound Publishing regional editor, contributed to this report.