Help wanted: GCSO begins recruitment measures to fill more than a dozen positions

The Grant County Sheriff’s Office wants quality candidates to know GCSO has opportunities for experienced and green recruits, according to Grant County Sheriff Tom Jones.

“What we have tried to focus on is not just focusing on entry level or lateral entry. We really try to focus on both of them because we welcome both of them. I am a big proponent of giving new people a fresh start if they want to get into the field of law enforcement, because that’s how we all got our start,” Jones said.

The department currently has three openings for patrol deputies and Jones said at a recent town hall meeting there is a potential for six more openings in the next quarter because of retirements and deputies moving on to new opportunities at other agencies. Also, he said, he would like to have an additional 10 deputies for the county jail, but has seen less turnover in GCSO’s administrative staff.

“(Administration) has been slower revolving for retirements and those kinds of things. We have a relatively young support staff group, but we’re always recruiting for them,” Jones said.

Outside of the office team, Jones said the majority of the vacancies are related to retirements. The losses aren’t unexpected, but they are coming in a wave that mirrors what the situation was about 20 years ago when he was first starting in law enforcement. With the older officers moving forward, recruiting has some unique challenges, he said.

“Recruiting the newer generations is just getting difficult, even before the (social justice) movements,” Jones said.

Additional challenges include restrictions placed on law enforcement in the state of Washington, long time frames to be able to patrol solo and candidate qualifications, Jones said.

Laws passed in Olympia during the 2021 legislative session restrict crime prevention and enforcement in ways that have made working in law enforcement less attractive, Jones said. He is hopeful laws proposed for the 2022 session will be passed and lift some of those restrictions, which will not only empower agencies like GCSO to better enforce the law, but also make law enforcement a more attractive career choice.

The time to move from being a trainee or new hire from another agency to when the deputy may patrol alone is also frustrating, but necessary, Jones said. A new recruit may take as long as a year to attend training and shadow an experienced deputy prior to patrolling as a solo deputy. For a lateral transfer from a different agency, the time is reduced to about 14 weeks – about three and a half months. However, Jones said it is necessary to have that training time to ensure the candidates are set up to be successful.

Candidate qualifications, such as a clear record, can complicate problems for new recruits. Many wash out of the recruitment process because of background checks or recreational drug use in high school or college, Jones said. GCSO uses guidelines similar to those in the Washington State Patrol when it comes to that issue. Recruits may not have any use of hard drugs within the five years prior to their application being submitted and within the last year for marijuana, Jones said.

“(The Washington State Patrol) went from a five-year marijuana restriction to a one-year marijuana restriction (after the state legalized cannabis),” Jones said.

To draw more people into the agency, Jones said senior leadership at GCSO has formed a recruiting team. The group is trying to use social media channels, the department’s website and public outreach opportunities to attract new officers to the county and show the next generation of law enforcement candidates crime prevention is a viable career option.

“They’ve done a good job. Soon you’ll start seeing stuff changing a little bit on our website as far as (recruitment). We’ll keep hammering down on social media and start doing these different events all across the state just to try to get those bodies in here,” Jones said.