MATTAWA — Staffing, recruitment and innovation were among the subjects discussed by Grant County Sheriff Joey Kriete and Yakima County Sheriff Robert Udell during a luncheon in Mattawa Thursday recognizing law enforcement contributions. 

The luncheon was sponsored by the South Grant County Chamber of Commerce in recognition of National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day. Andy Harlow, the Chamber’s director of public affairs and Wahluke School District superintendent, said an early-morning phone call that he received Thursday demonstrated the demands of the job. 

In this case early morning meant 5:30 a.m., and a call at that time is never good news, Harlow said. And he was right – it was the Mattawa Police Department. 

“You guys, the work that you do, it never ends,” Harlow said. 

Kriete said law enforcement doesn’t work alone, especially in a place the size of Grant County. 

“Grant County has the highest (number of) county road miles in the state of Washington, and we have 65 commissioned deputies from me down. We just can’t be everywhere, and that’s why we rely on our community so much to help us reach our mission,” Kriete said. “We have to work with the communities that we serve. That’s why we have you as our voice down here, our ears down here, our eyes down here.” 

The GCSO has 49 corrections deputies in addition to the patrol deputies, three emergency management specialists, a public information officer and 33 support staff, Kriete said. There are some open spots, and, in common with departments nationwide, GCSO is having trouble filling some of them. 

Udall said he was a little envious, since his department is smaller even though unincorporated Yakima County has more people than all of Grant County. A smaller law enforcement presence has an effect – on the county’s reputation along with many other things.  

Udall cited a conversation he had with Craig Johnson, the author of the Longmire mystery series. Udall started to explain Yakima County’s location, but Johnson said he had heard of it. 

“That’s the reaction I get everywhere I go,” Udall said. 

Both Kriete and Udall said it’s difficult to recruit good candidates now.  

“The days when I tested, when you show up and there’s a room full of 200 people for one position – those days are over,” said Kriete, a 32-year veteran.  

Fewer people are testing, and fewer still are passing all the tests, he said. From his experience, the change became noticeable in about 2021. 

Many states, including Washington, reacted to events in other areas of the country, he said, and changed the rules for what law enforcement officers could and couldn’t do.  

“It made it very difficult for people to get excited about being in law enforcement,” he said. “It’s tough to get excited about it when it feels like they’re taking the tools away for us to do our job.” 

One of the ways to meet that challenge is to get young people interested, he said, and he cited the criminal justice class at Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center in Moses Lake. Most law enforcement agencies in Grant County work with the class and its instructor, former Moses Lake Police Chief Dave Ruffin. 

“When he first started, he had one class with, maybe, 15 students.” Kriete said. “It was the kind of class where you’d get, maybe, some troubled kids, and they (thought), ‘Hey, it’s an easy pass.’”  

It was never an easy class, he said, and now it’s very selective. 

“The kids that are in there, they want to be there, and they’re phenomenal kids,” he said. “They’re extremely engaged. They ask questions about retirement. Anybody here think about retirement in high school? I did not.” 

Three current GCSO deputies are graduates of the skills center program, he said. 

Udall said the YCSO is working on some innovative things to make solving crimes easier, including starting its own crime lab. The YCSO is working with other Yakima County agencies, 13 in all, he said.  

“We’re doing criminal evidence right in our county,” Udall said. “That is a really big deal.” 

Typically, evidence is sent to the lab operated by the Washington State Patrol, but because of the volume of work it can take a while to get results, Udall said. 

The joint Yakima County lab services include analysis of spent shell casings, extracting and analyzing cell phone data and rapid testing of DNA. 

The equipment allows officers to determine which gun fired a shell casing, he said. 

“That’s really cool, because criminals are not gun collectors. When they use their gun in crime, they very often take their gun (and) give it to their buddy,” Udall said. “Then their buddy uses it, and it goes somewhere else.” 

Guns used in Yakima County frequently turn up in Grant County and Everett, he said. A single gun was used in eight crimes in one year, in locations from Prosser to Naches. 

Cell phone data is a big help in law enforcement, he said. 

“My big crime tip of the day, if you’re going to go out and do any crime later today, leave your cell phone at home because it tracks everything you do,” Udall said.  

The most important tool, however, is rapid DNA testing, he said. 

“Instead of taking (evidence) and sending it off to the state and getting a result in months or years, we can (analyze) it now. That is pretty cool stuff, and we’re really looking forward to what it can do for us,” he said. 

    Yakima County Sheriff Robert Udell talks about law enforcement, its challenges and some innovative responses, during the law enforcement appreciation luncheon.