Information from King County Council
Traffic enforcement by the King County Sheriff’s Office has had a fragmented approach in the past few years, with a lack of a coherent overall strategy and insufficient data collection to analyze effectiveness, a new report from the King County Auditor’s Office found.
The report, presented Tuesday to the King County Council’s Government Accountability and Oversight Committee, reviewed data on traffic stops from 2019-2021 and found that the traffic enforcement practices and priorities varied widely across the county. While KCSO staff cited safety as the primary reason for traffic enforcement, auditors found management did not regularly assess whether those efforts had any impact on safety, nor did it examine whether there were disparities in how deputies conducted traffic stops.
“With the transition to a new, appointed Sheriff, there is a unique opportunity to better understand traffic stops and to ensure alignment of new law enforcement strategies with the county’s values of equity and safety,” said King County Auditor Kymber Waltmunson.
Traffic stops are the third most common patrol action taken by deputies countywide, with roughly 62,000 stops initiated between 2019 and 2021. As such, these represent the most common interaction between deputies and the public.
Other key takeaways from the report include:
- Traffic stops have declined since COVID-19 pandemic, but not equally among areas: Between February and April 2020, traffic stops fell by two-thirds. Although they have increased since, traffic stops overall have not returned to pre-pandemic rates. In contrast, contract partner jurisdictions that have dedicated traffic enforcement units have returned to higher rates of traffic enforcement compared to the rest of King County since 2020.
- The decline in Sheriff’s Office traffic enforcement since April 2020 is not entirely in response to COVID-19: The decrease in traffic enforcement was also impacted by operational challenges: difficulty filling staff vacancies and changes in state law.
- Traffic enforcement is fragmented and the Sheriff’s Office has limited mechanisms to ensure its efforts align with King County values and safety goals: Contract partners set their own traffic enforcement priorities on the local level. A lack of regular, systemwide assessment of enforcement efforts presents a risk that current practices may be inconsistent with county goals and could present a barrier to future traffic-related policy changes if there is not alignment between the Sheriff’s Office and contract partners.
- The Sheriff’s Office does not collect demographic data to assess whether there are disparities in its policing practices: King County Code currently prohibits the Sheriff’s Office from collecting perceived race data. An update to King County Code in 2018 sought to ensure that King County’s data and limited resources are not used to assist with the Federal Government’s deportation agenda but may unintentionally also prevent the Sheriff’s Office from collecting data needed to assess potential disparities
- In the limited cases where demographic data is collected, data indicates that White officers were 180% more likely to use force against a Black motorist than motorists of other races: Despite the absence of comprehensive traffic stops demographic data, some relevant data exists in the Sheriff’s Office data systems, specifically in instances when an officer uses force. Comprehensive data collection on traffic stops would provide additional detail to evaluate these outcomes and to what extent factors, such as competing priorities across jurisdictions or officer discretion as a result of broad Sheriff’s Office policy, contribute to such disparities.
- Alternative Approaches to Traffic Enforcement: As King County transitions to an appointed Sheriff, decision-makers could look to strategies from across the United States as frameworks for change in King County if desired. These changes fall into three major categories: changes in law or policy to reduce the reasons officers can initiate traffic stops; creation of civilian traffic enforcement agencies; and implementation of automated traffic enforcement. As brief synopsis of each and their context specific to King County:
- Deprioritizing certain types of traffic stops that do not have a direct impact to public safety may be possible by making changes to local ordinance and to departmental policy
- Creation of a civilian traffic enforcement agency would likely require changes to state law due to unclear definitions in the Revised Code of Washington
- Automated enforcement strategies are legal in Washington state, but community equity and privacy concerns are considerable barriers to widespread implementation
Moving toward any of these alternatives will likely require adjustments to the Sheriff’s Office policy and would need to take into consideration the priorities of the Sheriff’s Office’s many contract partners.
