Clark County Sheriff's Office (Washington)

The Clark County Sheriff's Office is the local, county-level law enforcement agency serving Clark County, Washington. The Clark County Sheriff's Office was established in 1849 and is the oldest law enforcement organization in the state of Washington.^[1] The Clark County Sheriff's Office employs approximately 450 employees who serve in three distinct branches; enforcement, corrections, and support. The enforcement branch is composed of sworn deputy sheriffs who typically perform general policing duties such as patrolling the county, investigating crimes, serving arrest warrants, transporting prisoners, controlling disturbances, providing a safe atmosphere at large county events, along with a variety of other emergency and routine activities. Deputy sheriff's also serve in specialty assignments such as detectives, narcotics, SWAT, K9, marine patrol, school resource officer, explosive disposal unit, traffic homicide, sex offender monitoring, computer forensics, and child abuse investigations.^[2] Corrections deputies work in two different facilities; the main jail and the Lower River Road work center. The main jail is a medium and high security jail facility which houses an average of 600 inmates daily. The Lower River Road work center is a low-security jail facility which houses approximately 100 inmates. Support branch employees are non-sworn employees who work in criminal records, warrants, finance, human resources, admin, and in jail support roles supervising jail inmates who work in food and laundry services.

A patrol car of the Clark County Sheriff's Office.

Organization

Sheriff Chuck Atkins and Undersheriff Mike Cooke lead the Clark County Sheriff's Office. Chief Criminal Deputy John Chapman is in charge of the enforcement branch, Chief Corrections Deputy Ric Bishop is in charge of the corrections branch, and Chief Civil Deputy Steve Shea is in charge of the support branch. Additional ranks within the Clark County Sheriff's Office includes commanders, sergeants, and deputies. The Clark County Sheriff's Office also has an active reserve deputy sheriff program.

Clark County Sheriff’s Office Civilian Search and Rescue

The Clark County Sheriff’s Office Civilian Search and Rescue is a volunteer-based organization under the direction of the Clark County Sheriff's Office. The dedicated volunteer members work jointly with the Sheriff’s Office as well as other public and private agencies to respond to community needs of search and rescue within Clark County, Washington, and the surrounding areas.^[3]

References