At a press conference this morning that I did not attend because it interfered with my strict napping/drinking/not-giving-two-fucks schedule, King County Sheriff John Urquhart announced that he'd hired Jim Pugel, former interim chief of the Seattle Police Department, as his second in command.

This is fantastic news. Before Pugel was pushed out of the SPD and into early retirement earlier this year, he was known as one of the most progressive officers in the department—a champion of drug diversion programs and an advocate for departmental reform. His short reign as interim chief also showed a marked improvement in transparency within the SPD, specifically by getting in front of potential scandals and owning up to gaffes with grace and seeming sincerity.

The Seattle Times has more on the announcement, though not much:

Pugel, a Seattle native and University of Washington graduate, started as a volunteer reserve police officer in 1981. He was hired as a full-time officer in January 1983 and promoted to sergeant seven years later.

Congrats to Pugel for the new position and to Urquhart for being clever enough to nab him.