Thurston County Sheriff’s Office is set to begin the new year with a large amount of upgraded equipment.
The Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved, Tuesday, Dec. 17, the purchase of 17 Grappler units, 100 body and vehicle cameras and 100 Tasers. The Grappler units and associated equipment comes from an agreement with Stock Enterprises, LLC, and costs $109,343.48, while the cameras and Tasers stem from a 10-year contract with Axon in the amount of $4,911,044.
Sheriff Derek Sanders told the commissioners that the department was already awarded the funding and budget authority for the purchase of the Grappler units, but that it must come back before the board to purchase a specific set number of sole source items. He added that TCSO is in the process of securing one final grant for the Grappler units and the cost of grappler units has decreased recently.
“We’ve gotten external funding from a couple different sources, three of them being different types of grants and reimbursement programs. The reason the cost went down is because we bought so many of these that they’re actually going to train our county shop staff and some of our deputies on how to install and train them internally,” Sanders said. “So we no longer have to pay the vendor fee, which is a huge deal. The county could even see revenue sources come in as additional agencies are getting more interested in these devices specifically, and as far as I know, we’ll be the only agency in the state that is certified to train and install them.”
The Grappler system is a high-speed pursuit alternative to reduce risk to deputies and the community. This equipment allows law enforcement to quickly bring a suspect’s vehicle in a high-speed pursuit to a stop. The equipment is deployed from the front end of the deputy’s vehicle and affixes to the rear tire of the suspect’s vehicle, causing it to become tethered to the patrol vehicle. The patrol vehicle can then have control over the suspect’s vehicle to bring it to a controlled stop.
The department also purchased six Grappler units in April with the board’s approval in the amount of $48,662.92. TCSO received notification in May that it would receive $39,550 from the Washington Counties Risk Pool, and it also received a grant from the Department of Commerce to purchase the additional Grappler units. As well, according to a news release Dec. 16, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell announced that Thurston County received an Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance grant in the amount of $19,809 to purchase two Grappler units to de-escalate high-risk pursuits and prevent unnecessary injury or property damage.
TCSO’s new 10-year contract with Axon will alleviate the department’s limitations with its current body and vehicle cameras and Tasers. Bruce Rohrbough, county fleet services manager, told the board that replacement of the cameras addresses ongoing issues with reliability and data management.
Sanders said the previous Tasers, the TASER X26 model, were “extremely outdated” and that it is a “one-shot, one-chance Taser.”
“If you get in an environment where you attempt to Taser someone who’s fighting and they have a jacket on or thick clothing, it doesn’t allow probes to get through. Your Taser is obsolete at that point. It doesn’t work anymore,” Sanders said.
The department will be upgrading to the TASER 10, which has 10 separate darts instead of the one, and the range of the shot is more than double the previous model. Commission Vice Chair Wayne Fournier said the new Tasers also link with the camera system and begin recording when removed from the holster.
The board also unanimously approved two resolutions to extend the recruitment incentives programs to attract and hire lateral deputy sheriffs and corrections deputies for TCSO.
The policy authorizes TCSO to offer a new lateral hire a $25,000 hiring bonus, paid in installments, and 40 hours of both vacation time and sick leave, upon hire. It also allows the department to award employees 40 hours of incentive leave if they refer, and the office subsequently hires a lateral candidate. The program was absorbed by the agency’s vacancy savings.
Sanders called the program “wildly successful,” adding that from 2021-24, TCSO did not hire a lateral deputy sheriff, but it has hired 14 since it went live three months ago.
“The easiest way to put it is that when you compare the cost comparisons between an entry level and a lateral deputy sheriff, it’s about $63,000 more expensive to hire a brand new deputy in a 12-month rolling period,” Sanders said. “If you multiply 14 times the $63,000 minus the lateral bonus, which is $25,000, that leaves you with a little over half a million dollars of savings throughout a 12-month rolling period.”
