The Metropolitan King County Council has passed an ordinance allowing the creation of a new Professional Standards Division in the King County Sheriff's Office.

This new division would consolidate and manage all departmental functions related to the hiring, training, discipline, and development of department personnel.

"(The) action is a great step toward better oversight and accountability in the Sheriff's Office," said Councilmember Larry Phillips, co-sponsor of the ordinance. "This was a key recommendation of the Sheriff's Blue Ribbon Panel, and I applaud Sheriff Rahr for taking a more complete and coordinated approach to personnel matters-particularly disciplining officers. In time, I think citizens will notice increased professionalism in sheriff's deputies, without seeing an increase in their tax bill."_

Over the past 18 months the King County Sheriff's Office has conducted a variety of internal and external reviews, assessments and initiatives related to department performance and management. A common theme throughout has been a recognized need to have systems in place that promote accountability and develop a comprehensive structure for the care, development, disciplining, and management of department personnel.__

A 10-member Blue Ribbon Panel was created in February 2006 and directed to review the Sheriff's internal management systems for addressing employee misconduct and make recommendations to the Sheriff on improvements to the accountability system for misconduct and discipline. The Panel presented its findings and recommendations to the Council last year. Among those recommendations was for the Sheriff to, "take primary responsibility for creating, implementing, modeling and sustaining reforms that improve [personnel] accountability."

The new Professional Standards Division will be under the direction of a civilian chief and would have four units to implement a comprehensive and integrated approach to personnel issues.

"The creation of a Professional Standards Division will bring together many recent initiatives to improve training, discipline, and accountability within the Sheriff's Office," said Councilmember Dow Constantine, "This coordinated personnel management system will benefit both our deputies and the people they serve."