Records show Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank’s trips in U.S. and abroad
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- Sheriff Swank has spent 33 weekdays traveling since January for work and vacation.
- Pierce County funded two trips for police conferences totaling over $5,400 in expenses.
- Swank said he works remotely during trips and delegates duties to the undersheriff.
Since January, Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank has traveled to policing conferences, visited Washington, D.C. for political purposes, taken trips to Florida and South Africa and been “arm candy” for his wife at a seminar for her work selling beauty products.
The six trips amount to a little more than six weeks of work, 33 weekdays, when Swank has been out of town for business or pleasure, according to calendar and travel records released to The News Tribune through a public records request.
Being sheriff is a 24-7 job, and in an Aug. 13 phone call, Swank said he’s never really off the clock. Even on his 17-day trip to South Africa at the end of May and early June — when details of his feud with Prosecutor Mary Robnett were publicly reported — Swank says he was tuned in.
“I’m hailing stuff whenever I have WiFi,” Swank said. “I read emails every day. I do work every day whether I’m out of town or not, so I really don’t ever really have a vacation where I can just sit around and do nothing.”
Swank added that Undersheriff Cynthia Fajardo is acting sheriff when he’s out of town, and his elected position doesn’t require him to work a specific number of hours a week.
Pierce County paid for travel expenses for the two policing conferences in January and May at an estimated cost of $5,421, records show, for travel, lodging, meals and registration fees. Swank told The News Tribune the cost of other trips came out of his own pocket.
Swank is responsible for providing police services for an estimated 450,750 people who live in unincorporated areas, along with the cities of Edgewood and University Place, which contract with the Sheriff’s Office. Public records show his 2025 annual salary is $196,832.85.
His first seven months in office have included a number of distractions. Those include an ongoing lawsuit Robnett filed to try to permanently bar a private attorney from giving legal advice to Swank, including in a dispute over his declared intentions to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement — an intention he has softened on in recent months and would violate state law.
There’s also been the DUI arrest of the head of the Sheriff’s Office’s Criminal Investigation Division. Swank, who appointed Major Chadwick Dickerson to the position, responded in numerous media interviews about the controversy, which also dredged up his own 2007 conviction for negligent driving (Swank has said he was sobering up in his car after celebrating a friend’s successful elk hunt but wasn’t driving when he was arrested).
Swank has posted through it all on his X account, where he comments on news and politics to an audience of 18,000 followers and often responds to those who engage with him. He’s made more than 100 posts or replies since the beginning of August. On Aug. 1, replying to a user who said he should spend more time working and less on social media, Swank wrote: “I can walk and chew gum.”
Asked whether the distractions or social media takes up too much of his time, Swank said he typically makes posts early in the morning or late at night, and he’s often too busy during the work day to sit down, read emails or put things out online.
“Tonight I have a meeting at 6 p.m., a community meeting for two-and-a-half hours that I’m going to be at,” Swank said. “Then I’ll be home at 9:30 or 10 o’clock, and my day started at 4:30 this morning so that’s what a typical day for me is. But I love it.”
Swank has more out-of-town travel scheduled at least once a month through the rest of the year, his calendar shows. The longest appears to be an 11-day trip in late September to the tiny town of Mansfield in Douglas County. The others are for between four and nine days, including for the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs fall training conference in Kennewick and time off around Christmas.
Details of Swank’s travel from January through July
From Jan. 31 to Feb. 6, Swank was traveling for the National Sheriffs’ Association Winter Conference in Washington, D.C. An itinerary showed attendees could receive training on preparing for active shooter incidents and homeland security challenges, go to a networking lunch and sit in on seminars. Swank stayed at a Hilton Garden Inn a few blocks from the White House and the convention, which took place in a pricier JW Marriott.
In mid-February, Swank vacationed in Florida for a full week, a state he has said he considered moving to before he decided to run for sheriff last year.
April 7-9, Swank was “out of town” according to his calendar, and he confirmed that is when he traveled to Washington, D.C., to lend his support to Adams County Sheriff Dale Wagner, who testified April 9 before a U.S. House committee about his opposition to “sanctuary laws” such as the Keep Washington Working Act.
May 18-22, Swank was traveling for the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs Conference in Spokane, where receipts show he stayed at the DoubleTree by Hilton, which is connected to the convention center.
Swank’s longest trip, to South Africa from May 23 to June 8, was one he said he and a friend had been planning for four years. He described it as a “sightseeing and safari” excursion. Swank, who has said he likes to hunt and fish, said he didn’t do any hunting on the trip but had friends that were, and he went along with them.
His friends were hunting a small, shy antelope called Sharpe’s grysbok. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, its population is stable and is classified as “Least Concern” on its Red List of Threatened Species. Swank said they’re elusive, and his friends didn’t have any luck.
He said he’d never been to South Africa before, and he’d put money toward the trip before he made plans to run for sheriff.
“I’ve always wanted to go there,” Swank said.
At the end of July, Swank was out of town for five days. He said he was in Charlotte, North Carolina, supporting his wife, Nina. She was attending an annual seminar for Mary Kay, a multilevel marketing company that sells cosmetics and skin care products. According to the company’s website, Nina is an independent sales director.
Swank posted on X July 28 that his job was to be “arm candy” for his wife. On the phone Wednesday, Swank said he hung out with his wife and her team and watched her take home some awards.
This story was originally published August 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
