Tacoma police union blasts Chief Moore’s claim that TPD lacks ‘stand-alone drug unit’
Tacoma Police Chief Avery Moore recently made a remark that raised a few eyebrows. The city’s Police Department, Moore said during an Oct. 15 budget discussion, “[doesn’t] have a stand-alone drug unit.”
Not so, some in the department have since argued.
Moore’s assertion rubbed the Local 6 police union the wrong way. The Tacoma Police Department’s communications office, meanwhile, has said it “regret[s] the confusion caused by this statement” and clarified the chief’s comment.
During the Oct. 15 City Council study session, Moore talked about the proposed 2025-26 budget as it relates to TPD. The department, he said, isn’t adequately staffed to conduct more proactive policing.
“We don’t even have, for example, a drug unit when we have a major drug problem,” he said. “We’ve made some significant drug arrests, but I don’t have a stand-alone drug unit, and I would like to get that at some point.”
This statement inspired Local 6 to send The News Tribune and other outlets a press release on Oct. 19, titled: “TPD’S DRUG UNIT.”
The release notes that the department does have a drug unit called the Special Investigations Unit. SIU’s main focus is on narcotic probes, from street dealing to drug-trafficking organizations.
Local 6 went on to say that too many people in Pierce County have lost their lives to opioids.
The county’s Emergency Medical System fielded more than 3,300 calls related to likely opioid overdoses between January 2023 and last May, according to the local health department. The county also counted over 800 overdose fatalities between January 2021 and June 2023.
The police union highlighted SIU-related statistics. So far in 2024, the unit has:
Seized more than 100 firearms
Conducted more than 60 arrests linked to narcotics
Served in excess of 40 search warrants
Removed more than 200,000 fentanyl pills from the streets, “plus much more.”
“TPD officers are facing many challenges, both from within and outside our Department, from low staffing and leadership vacuums to legislative restrictions on proactive policing,” Local 6 said in the statement. “But our members still answer the call to make Tacoma a better city.”
Tacoma’s top cop generated headlines late last month when he was placed on administrative leave. The city manager would later announce an investigation had been conducted into Moore’s personal use of a city asset. Following verbal counseling, he returned to work the following week.
A News Tribune reporter saw Moore at the Tacoma City Council meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 22. Afterward, the reporter asked the chief if he’d like to respond to Local 6’s news release. He declined, citing a statement from the Police Department.
TPD spokesperson Shelbie Boyd clarified Moore’s controversial remarks in an email to The News Tribune on Wednesday afternoon. The department, she said, does not currently house a narcotics unit that solely investigates drugs. She noted that SIU has also handled violent-offender apprehensions at times.
That unit enforced other crimes before the pandemic hit, including misdemeanor drug offenses and prostitution, Boyd said.
“However, following the pandemic and changes in State Laws,” Boyd continued, “the SIU shifted its focus toward conducting more violent offender apprehensions while continuing its primary role of performing felony-level drug investigations.”
Sgt. Henry Betts, president of the Local 6 union, told “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH that he felt the need to speak out after learning what Moore had said.
“We can’t abide by that, right?” Betts told that outlet. “I can’t let something that’s said like this to the council and to the city manager and publicly on camera, and feel like one of our units just doesn’t even exist.
“The men and women that work there, they deserve better than that.”
The News Tribune asked Local 26, Tacoma’s captains and lieutenants union, for comment via email but did not hear back.
