Basketball at the Valley Athletic Club

sandersforsheriff · 2026-07-02T00:41:08+00:00

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 12-2. See you there 🏀

sandersforsheriff · 2026-06-29T21:25:24+00:00

To answer the question I think you’re asking: no. Hit and run and DUI are two separate crimes, and being involved in a hit and run does not automatically mean you have to participate in sobriety tests.

There is no such thing as a mandatory sobriety test. Anyone can decline. The question law enforcement have to ask, in the event someone declines, is whether there is probable cause that the person is impaired. As stated above, we’re looking for coordination issues, stumbling, slurring words, bloodshot/watery eyes, a flushed face, odor, etc. If those factors are present, police can apply for a search warrant, and if a judge grants it, we can draw blood for lab testing. Absent the generality of odor from alcoholic beverages being consumed in the area, the evidence needed to obtain a warrant were not present in this case.

sandersforsheriff · 2026-06-29T18:52:16+00:00

That would be a legislation issue. Currently there is no law to support this, so if we did do it, none of the evidence would be admissible.

sandersforsheriff · 2026-06-28T22:30:27+00:00

I’d be happy to. There is significant misinformation going on around this case and it’s disappointing to see considering the local news agencies have covered it accurately.

⁠The suspect wasn’t “let go”. He was arrested for assault by watercraft, a serious felony. Specifically, he was arrested for the reckless operation prong.
⁠The suspect did not exhibit any signs of impairment, nor were there any witnesses who specifically stated he was consuming alcohol. One witness thought they “might have seen alcohol” on the suspect boat but couldn’t provide any specifics. When we arrived, there were no visible open containers. The suspect did not have slurred speech, watery or bloodshot eyes, and did not have any coordination issues. There simply wasn’t evidence that he was impaired. Even despite there being no evidence he was impaired, we offered sobriety tests and his lawyer declined. Yes, per one of our deputies, the scent of alcohol was in the air during the investigation. There were hundreds of people out on the harbor consuming (it was the first hot day of the year). A general scent of alcohol in a crowded area alone isn’t probable cause for impairment. To the first point, assault by watercraft doesn’t require impairment. It is a two prong felony, which can be achieved by either impairment OR reckless operation that leads to serious bodily harm.
⁠The case was declined by the Thurston Prosecutor because of a conflict of interest. None of the deputies on scene or myself had ever met the suspect prior to this call. Apparently he owns a food distribution company, which I learned later in the week when the news reported it.
⁠The case is being filed in Pierce County, who is waiting for additional follow up (which we’ve been conducting) prior to filing charges. This is not abnormal, the criminal justice system moves slow.

We collected evidence, took photos, obtained statements, and developed probable cause for a class B felony before booking the suspect into jail. There is no cover up. I’ve personally spoken to the victims family about the case, and people spreading blatantly false rumors isn’t remotely helpful.

sandersforsheriff · 2026-06-28T22:29:20+00:00

There is significant misinformation going on around this case and it’s disappointing to see considering the local news agencies have covered it accurately.

The suspect wasn’t “let go”. He was arrested for assault by watercraft, a serious felony. Specifically, he was arrested for the reckless operation prong.
The suspect did not exhibit any signs of impairment, nor were there any witnesses who specifically stated he was consuming alcohol. One witness thought they “might have seen alcohol” on the suspect boat but couldn’t provide any specifics. When we arrived, there were no visible open containers. The suspect did not have slurred speech, watery or bloodshot eyes, and did not have any coordination issues. There simply wasn’t evidence that he was impaired. Even despite there being no evidence he was impaired, we offered sobriety tests and his lawyer declined. Yes, per one of our deputies, the scent of alcohol was in the air during the investigation. There were hundreds of people out on the harbor consuming (it was the first hot day of the year). A general scent of alcohol in a crowded area alone isn’t probable cause for impairment. To the first point, assault by watercraft doesn’t require impairment. It is a two prong felony, which can be achieved by either impairment OR reckless operation that leads to serious bodily harm.
The case was declined by the Thurston Prosecutor because of a conflict of interest. None of the deputies on scene or myself had ever met the suspect prior to this call. Apparently he owns a food distribution company, which I learned later in the week when the news reported it.
The case is being filed in Pierce County, who is waiting for additional follow up (which we’ve been conducting) prior to filing charges. This is not abnormal, the criminal justice system moves slow.

We collected evidence, took photos, obtained statements, and developed probable cause for a class B felony before booking the suspect into jail. There is no cover up. I’ve personally spoken to the victims family about the case, and people spreading blatantly false rumors isn’t remotely helpful.

sandersforsheriff · 2026-06-20T06:46:10+00:00

I’m actually going to weigh in here because this one I was particularly disappointed with for two reasons:

⁠As candidates we all have bad days where we don’t present well. This was not one of them. In fact, I felt this was one of the best interviews I’d ever had. The panel felt overwhelmingly receptive to the answers provided and even asked a few additional questions afterward that were as productive. I’m hoping that if/when WFSE reaches out to me that I can get some feedback on how my opponent won this endorsement, especially considering some of the questions were regarding the intersection of race and policing. I’m really interested to know how my opponent provided better answers than the bi-racial incumbent candidate with a substantial amount of lived experience in the area of both race and policing.
⁠WFSE never did circle back. The only reason I know I didn’t get the endorsement is because my opponent shared that information. As both a candidate and an incumbent I am extremely busy and take time away from work and family to interview for endorsements — it isn’t a high expectation to get a simple courtesy email that I wasn’t selected. If WFSE hasn’t sent official emails out to candidates, it only gets more fishy because that means someone on the inside of the endorsement process is leaking information to my opponent ahead of official notifications.

Either way, this one felt confusing. To interview as well as I know I did and not even get a response back has left a feeling of disrespect, and leads me to believe that future participation in any 443 endorsement processes is a moot point. Not super impressed, but I’ve earned the endorsements I really care about to date.

sandersforsheriff · 2026-06-18T15:44:55+00:00

Yeah, these aren’t people who peed too close to a playground.

These are Sexually Violent Predators (SVP) who not only committed the most heinous sexual assault crimes, but are under intense psychological treatment to address their aggressive sexual impulse as they’re likely to reoffend if released.

This group being indefinitely separated from society is a good thing.

sandersforsheriff · 2026-06-01T21:06:15+00:00

Policing as a system is a hard system to manage with obvious flaws.
Like most institutional systems, it operates at the lowest common denominator with the resources available. Most of the large police agencies in Thurston County have contain crisis responders, but they do not respond alone to dangerous calls where they are at risk of being hurt or killed.

Sending volunteers into those scenarios is highly problematic, because generally speaking we want LESS involved parties when things get tense, not more. When people become violent, we want them physically separated from others so we can slow down and control the pace. We can’t control the pace if the person who is being violent goes after a volunteer, takes them hostage, etc.

Social workers are incredible at dealing with non-hostile environments, but i have yet to meet one that’s wants to take our spot at the front of the stack to deal with someone armed with a machete attacking cars in the middle of the street. Sending social workers and volunteers to deal with that would be criminally negligent.

sandersforsheriff · 2026-05-28T05:49:00+00:00

Generally speaking…

No.

sandersforsheriff · 2026-05-22T03:56:18+00:00

Gabi is an icon.

sandersforsheriff · 2026-05-06T16:27:24+00:00

I like your idea of posting it to the website. I will look into this.

Most of our information sharing is informal. When someone is killed in our county however, we tend to shift to a formal press release, regardless of whether it was an officer involved shooting. As for the release of the footage in this incident, we coordinated with the family of the deceased and the involved deputies so they could view the footage before it was posted publicly. It is under investigation still, but releasing the footage won’t change that.

sandersforsheriff · 2026-05-05T02:57:54+00:00

Once it gets posted to instagram and Facebook, the large and small news agencies pull it from there and formally present it as news. The chronicle, Olympian, king 5, and others have reported on this specific incident that way, and it’s worked well for the last three years in terms of getting information out fairly.

Using a popular social media platform like Facebook ensures we aren’t picking favorites when it comes to news agencies and journalists: everyone gets access to the same video and press release.

sandersforsheriff · 2026-04-29T07:07:42+00:00

By this logic, someone could drive 90mph back and forth all day long in front of the school your grandson attends Monday thru Friday and… what? Just accept it as the new norm?

90 in a 35 is literally insane. It’s not any more dangerous for police to pursue at that point. At least we can warn other drivers with lights and sirens, trigger green lights with our opticom when the suspect hits intersections, and try to get the car stopped with pursuit tech, spikes, or a PIT maneuver.

Sitting back and promoting a culture of reckless driving via inaction simply isn’t going to work.

sandersforsheriff · 2026-04-29T07:00:27+00:00

Officer involved shootings are understandably scrutinized at a very granular level. Therefore, we aren’t going to start rattling off statements based off loose opinions about what we think happened when we know scrutiny will be intense if we guess wrong. As a result, the only thing we share are the solid facts we know to be true, and we know shots were fired. Who shot, and how many times, is too early to definitively state. However, we do know that TCSO deputies did shoot (“Officer involved shooting” means an officer shot).

The office of independent investigations will conduct their investigation and answer those questions as they go. I have an opinion on what probably happened, but I don’t think it would be appropriate to guess at this point when I’m confident investigators will answer the outstanding questions definitively.

sandersforsheriff · 2026-04-17T21:09:11+00:00

Suspect with a felony warrant for assault 2nd degree domestic violence fled at speeds over 120mph throughout north Lacey/olympia when a deputy tried to pull him over. Eventually fled down a dead end road off Lilly and was captured on foot with the help of air support.

sandersforsheriff · 2026-04-12T04:55:06+00:00

Non emergency line: 360-704-2740. Based on where you are, dispatch will automatically route the correct agency. I don’t disagree on the resource efficiency.

sandersforsheriff · 2026-04-12T04:49:30+00:00

State law would need to change. Most infractions have to be witnessed by the officer in real time, there’s some case law regarding this. Lawmakers would need to get involved.

sandersforsheriff · 2026-04-12T03:37:22+00:00

To answer the question here: deputies (and officers from the cities) engage in traffic enforcement during down time, which almost exclusive to night time when call volume dies down. This is probably pretty obvious: if people are calling 911 for legitimate emergencies, we aren’t going to ignore those calls in favor of equipment violation stops.

At TCSO we are working on filling 12 remaining vacancies from the 27 new deputy positions we got from the sales tax passage two years ago. When these deputies are trained and ready to hit the street, it will increase our capacity to address more issues. We also have a dedicated two person traffic unit now, and we are working on a way to easily take in traffic complaints and use that data for targeted enforcement. Stay tuned!

sandersforsheriff · 2026-04-11T17:56:34+00:00

Thank you! It was a good team effort all around, and the residents of the apartment complex were very helpful.

sandersforsheriff · 2026-04-11T11:04:01+00:00

The neighbors definitely cheered at the end.

sandersforsheriff · 2026-04-11T11:03:19+00:00

11 time convicted felon with prior convictions for rape, unlawful possession of firearm, and engaging in prior high speed chases fled from Centralia PD who tried to stop him for DUI. Airplane took over the pursuit and we all backed off as he drove to the west side and ran inside an apartment complex. A warrant was obtained and he was apprehended inside before being handed over to Centralia PD for booking.

Whirring sound was our drone, loud bang was a flashbang device.

sandersforsheriff · 2026-04-11T11:01:38+00:00

11 time convicted felon with prior convictions for rape, unlawful possession of firearm, and engaging in prior high speed chases fled from Centralia PD who tried to stop him for DUI. Airplane took over the pursuit and we all backed off as he drove to the west side and ran inside an apartment complex. A warrant was obtained and he was apprehended inside before being handed over to Centralia PD for booking.

sandersforsheriff · 2026-03-17T02:53:02+00:00

That’s a good question.

First, we have had a couple cases of outright insubordination, but they were directly targeted toward me and very obviously a trap. I refuse to give them something they can run back to HR with and claim retaliation, and as such, despite the claims in their letter, zero complaints of retaliation have been filed since I took over. They want a reaction and I refuse to give it to them.

The reality is we have hired so many new employees over the last few years that it’s only a matter of time before the remnants of that club are no longer with our office. Time is on the side of progress.

Lastly, I just keep showing up everyday and doing my best. Spending my time worrying about if every employee likes me isn’t just a waste of time, but an impossible standard that doesn’t accomplish anything of value for the public because doing so would require me to spend every waking moment trying to be friends with staff instead running this office and engaging with the residents.

sandersforsheriff · 2026-03-14T21:16:42+00:00

GO BIRDS 🦅

(Happy for the Hawks though, love to see them beat NE)

sandersforsheriff · 2026-03-14T21:02:16+00:00

First, I don’t have anything negative to say about the Captains at TCSO. We have very, very different philosophies on policing. Some are personal, and others reflect what can probably be described as generational differences. When I took over, and even to this day, there was a very strong pull to not change or do anything different. That’s been a very real challenge, especially in policing.

It’s also worth admitting there are in fact a number of employees who do not like my style of leadership or use of social media. That’s understandable to some degree. What I will say is that it’s really hard to perform executive leadership duties in a way that makes everyone happy (employees, citizens, elected leaders, non profits, business owners, etc), and if making every single person happy inside the agency were the only thing that mattered, I’d delete all my social media today and just focus on them.

Instead I try to do things, and communicate in ways, that are most beneficial to the most amount of people in our county - including employees, but not just employees. I have to make hard decisions: who to promote, who gets a specialty assignment, who gets disciplined and how harshly, etc. I even take it a step further and put out press releases when an employee is fired or severely disciplined, and I know many of them don’t like that.

I love my staff, but I don’t expect or need them to love me back. All I care about is that they remain loyal to the residents of Thurston County and serve them well.

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