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Kevin Burton-Crow believes that Thurston County deserves a sheriff’s office that’s directly accountable to the people it serves.
He is running for the office’s top office to put systems in place to make that happen.
“I believe in institutions over individuals,” Burton-Crow said.
To him, that means a published, line-item budget, clear data on how the sheriff’s office spends its time and resources, outside standards they can measure themselves against, and leadership decisions open to public review.
“Our community deserves an office that earns trust by showing its work, because the sheriff answers directly to voters, and voters deserve the information to hold the office accountable,” Burton-Crow said. “Trust should not rest on promises from any one leader. It should be based on data, outside accountability, and results residents can verify. These are leadership and planning challenges, not failures of the people doing the work, and they can be fixed.”
With almost 12 years at the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office and 20 years in the U.S. Army, Burton-Crow believes he has the frontline law enforcement experience, management experience and budget expertise, as well as the right temperament and commitment to service that the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office needs.
Burton-Crow started at the sheriff’s office as a reserve deputy in 2014. Since 2021, he has served as a patrol deputy, field training officer, EVOC instructor, ABLE instructor, and member of the Dive Rescue, Marine Services and Animal Cruelty teams.
Today, he is a special victims detective, working with the county’s most vulnerable victims.
He additionally serves as president of the Deputy Sheriff’s Association, representing about 135 members.
Through that role, he has successfully negotiated better pay, benefits, and working conditions for Thurston County deputies, and vows to bring union leadership to the table as partners from day one.
That union leadership will be important as the agency works to improve its recruitment and retention rates, Burton-Crow said.
“Every vacancy and every experienced deputy we lose costs the community in service and costs taxpayers in overtime and training,” Burton-Crow said. “Our deputies, corrections staff, and support professionals do excellent work every day. They deserve leadership that plans ahead, bargains in good faith, and invests in them.”
Burton-Crow intends to improve the agency’s recruitment and retention rates by offering strong field training, competitive compensation, and good-faith bargaining with every employee group.
Part of that field training will include joint training with fire, EMS, emergency management and other law enforcement agencies to ensure that deputies are as ready as possible for mass casualty incidents, natural disasters, and other large-scale events.
With the county facing a budget crisis, Burton-Crow said that reviewing and documenting the agency’s operations, capital projects and staffing levels is more important than ever.
“The county faces serious fiscal challenges, and the office needs a plan that protects public safety and its workforce by cutting operational waste first and treating staffing reductions as a last resort,” Burton-Crow said.
Publishing a detailed line-item budget is one of Burton-Crow’s top priorities for his first term in office. He also intends to publish regular public reports on staffing, response and outcomes, “so residents and commissioners can see exactly what they are paying for,” Burton-Crow said.
He also intends to do independent assessments and reviews of the agency’s capital facilities, processes and staff so that the sheriff’s office can streamline its work, prioritize capital projects, and staff more deliberately.
Another top priority for Burton-Crow is seeking accreditation for the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office through the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) and pursue the same accreditation for the jail.
The jail has not been made the top capital priority it deserves to be, despite ample documentation of its deteriorating conditions and capacity problems.
“Conditions in the current jail may present physical barriers to accreditation, which is one more reason the independent assessment matters,” Burton-Crow said.
Overall, Burton-Crow said he wants to move away from reacting to crime, and instead build an agency that is proactive in its approach to law enforcement.
Of his decision to run as a Democrat, Burton-Crow said that party best represents the values he will bring to the elected sheriff position, and he wanted to be upfront with voters.
“People deserve to know who they are electing and what values guide their decisions,” Burton-Crow states on his website. My values align with supporting working families, respecting labor unions and collective bargaining, believing people should have access to health care, supporting strong public education, and using practical, evidence-based solutions to improve community safety. I also believe in fiscal responsibility, personal accountability, and protecting constitutional rights. Those beliefs come from my life in the military, in law enforcement, and in this community, not from political trends.”
For more information on Burton-Crow’s campaign, visit https://www.burton-crowforsheriff.com.
To learn more about Burton-Crow’s opponent, Derek Sanders, visit https://www.sandersforsheriff.org.
