Pierce County spent thousands on food, OT, other expenses while monitoring BLM protests
Pierce County spent more than $81,000 to monitor local protests in June.
As thousands took to the streets to protest racial inequality and police violence, the county’s Emergency Operations Center shifted its focus from the coronavirus pandemic to keeping an eye on marches, rallies and demonstrations.
The switch occurred June 3, the day The News Tribune published a story about Manuel Ellis’ autopsy results and how the Black man died due to lack of oxygen while Tacoma police were restraining him. Video later surfaced of Ellis calling out, “I can’t breathe, sir, I can’t breathe,” echoing the words of George Floyd, who died May 25 death in Minneapolis as a white police officer knelt on Floyd’s neck.
Inside the Emergency Operations Center were personnel from the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, Washington State Patrol and police from Tacoma, Lakewood and Puyallup. Someone was also there to represent smaller jurisdictions in the county.
Authorities say monitoring Black Lives Matter protests was standard procedure for the safety of everyone involved.
“It’s important for law enforcement to be aware of what is happening in the community, particularly when there is the potential for opposing protest groups to occupy the same area at the same time, thereby creating the potential for groups to clash with one another,” said Mike Blair, chief of staff for the Sheriff’s Department.
As almost daily protests drew hundreds to parks and city streets, Tacoma imposed a curfew and county Executive Bruce Dammeier declared an emergency and requested 200 National Guard troops to provide security if riots broke out as they had in other cities.
Thirty of the unarmed guards were posted outside the County-City Building. Others were sent to help protect sheriff’s precincts in South Hill and Parkland/Spanaway.
Much of the $81,643 spent to monitor local protests went toward taking care of personnel.
Nearly $5,000 was spent feeding the National Guard and those working in the Emergency Operations Center. There were orders for pizza, Chipotle, Chik-Fil-A, Red Robin and Jimmy John’s sandwiches, according to a budget spreadsheet titled “Civil Unrest Mission.”
Operations had the biggest piece of the budget at $54,291. That included bus rentals to transport the National Guard, portable toilets and shower rentals.
Then there was the overtime, totaling more than $17,000.
Although the Department of Emergency Management footed the bill, the involved law enforcement agencies were the ones deciding what they would need for the mission.
“They wanted to be able to respond to everything in a unified manner,” said Emergency Management spokesman Mike Halliday. “It’s our job to provide a space where people can work together around the county.”
The Emergency Operations Center focused on protests June 3-6, county records say.
During that time, the center was operating up to 18 hours each day and had 150 law enforcement officers ready to respond at a moment’s notice.
They activated at 1 p.m. June 3 because of “civil unrest” spreading across the nation, further stoked by the release of Ellis’ cause of death in Tacoma, according to notes from a Pierce County Police Chief’s Association meeting.
Although the “Civil Unrest Mission” budget shows expenditures through June 9, Halliday said that might be because bills continued to come in after the center was no longer monitoring demonstrations.
A joint Regional Intelligence Group staffed by the Sheriff’s Department and Tacoma police continued to gather information on marches in Pierce County throughout June and forwarded details to individual agencies.
Lakewood was a city where several BLM marches took place.
Police Chief Mike Zaro said knowing about the planned events enabled him to call organizers and ask what they might need in terms of shutting down city streets, providing an escort as people marched and doing traffic control.
“It’s not like we were infiltrating their organizations,” Zaro said. “A lot of information we get is from public domain, and it’s just dates and times about where they might be.”
Law enforcement officials denied photographing individual protesters, monitoring their social media accounts or tracking members of the media.
We “monitor events, not specific protesters,” Blair said.
The group tracked at least 21 marches from June 3-10, including a vigil held for Ellis at the intersection where he died. Law enforcement officers noted dates, times, locations, event organizers and how many people attended.
In a few instances, they mentioned vandalism by protesters but overall commented on how peaceful the gatherings were.
“I am proud of the way the people of Pierce County have responded to these events,” Dammeier wrote in a June 12 memo. “Thousands peacefully marched to demand justice.”
He also noted a need to make the justice system more transparent and just.
“Manuel Ellis’ family deserves this, and our entire community rightly expects it,” Dammeier said.
This story was originally published October 24, 2020 at 8:00 AM.
