There’s no getting around it: switching the Sheriff from an elected position back to an appointed position strips voters of their direct power over the office—to the extent that they have it, anyway.
The fact is, Sheriffs run once every four years in off-year elections, which tend to have much lower turnouts than even-year elections, so lots of people aren’t even voting for Sheriff in the first place. It’s also a down-ballot race, so even fewer people are likely to vote.
And when we do vote on a Sheriff, it’s not like we’re getting to pick between a progressive reformer and an obvious psychopath, if we even get to choose at all. Here’s the recent electoral history, briefly: Republican Dave Reichert was appointed in 1997 and ran unopposed until he appointed conservative Sue Rahr, who ran unopposed until she appointed Republican Steve Strachan, who lost a race to John Urquhart, who was touted as a reformer but who was ousted after “allegations of bias, retaliation, and rape,” which he denied. And now we have Sheriff Mitzi Johanknecht, who let police reforms “die on the vine,” according to a report from the Office of Law Enforcement Oversight.
Electing a Sheriff also grants the Department of Public Safety more autonomy, which is nice if you’re the Department of Public Safety, but not nice if you’re interested in checks and balances. The Sheriff, for instance, doesn’t have to come before the King County Council to explain what the hell is going on over there if she doesn’t want to. Sheriff Johanknecht ghosts the Council and its committees “enough that it’s noticeable,” Councilmember Jeanne Kohl-Welles told the SECB.
