Pierce County use-of-force rates against people of color ‘not acceptable’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Black people and Native Americans had highest use-of-force rates in 2024.
- Use-of-force incidents rose 57% from 2021 to 2024.
- County cites transparency and a planned deeper analysis; leaders demand concrete plans.
New data shows Pierce County deputies used force against Black people and Native Americans at higher rates than against white people in 2024, continuing a pattern shown in a similar study from 2021..
The new data, unveiled last month, also shows overall use-of-force incidents have ticked up each year since 2021.
Deputies used force against Black people and Native Americans at more than three times the rate they did against white people in 2024, according to a February use-of-force report presented to the County Council’s Public Safety Committee.
The report is an update to a study completed in 2021. The new report was produced by the county’s Finance Department without a formal work group after it received data from the Sheriff’s Office.
The 2021 report was the work of a Criminal Justice Workgroup that included senior staff from the County Executive’s Office, Sheriff’s Office, Prosecutor’s Office and Public Defender’s Office. It examined use-of-force incidents from 2016 through 2020. It used data from the Sheriff’s Office on use-of-force incidents and information from the American Community Survey for demographic data. A limitation of both reports is that they lack context for why force was used in each incident, and they don’t determine whether the uses of force were lawful.
From 2016 through 2020, deputies used force against Black people at more than five times the rate they did against white people and against Native Americans at roughly twice the rate of white people.
That’s a higher use of force rate for Black people than what was reported in the new report, and a lower use of force rate for Native Americans. That indicates that in recent years, the disparity in use-of-force rates between Black people and white people in the county has narrowed, but use-of-force rates have worsened for Native Americans.
Putting the findings of the initial 2021 report and this year’s update side by side is an imperfect comparison. The initial report used data across 2016 to 2020 to calculate use of force per 10,000 people. This year’s update used the latest year that data is available, 2024, to work out the per-capita use-of-force rates for each demographic. Maranatha Hay, a spokesperson for Pierce County, said that aligns with standard annual reporting. She said a more detailed five-year update for 2021 to 2025 is planned once last year’s data is available.
When the original report was published, then-County Executive Bruce Dammeier called it a milestone in justice reform.
Dammeier said there was a lot of work ahead. Kevin Roberts, then a bureau chief in the Sheriff’s Office who was part of the group that compiled the earlier report, said at the time that it would dig deeper into the findings to figure out possible solutions.
In response to questions from The News Tribune, a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office, Carly Cappetto, said if there are disparities that are accurately demonstrated in findings, the Sheriff’s Office is committed to looking into the root problems and addressing them immediately.
“The accuracy of data on police use of force can be significantly affected by where the data originates, especially when disparities in law enforcement practices toward certain groups are involved,” Cappetto said in an email. “Understanding these limitations of data collection is crucial when interpreting such data and drawing conclusions about fairness and accountability in law enforcement.”
Asked what the Sheriff’s Office is doing to address the disparities in use of force, Cappetto said the office has enhanced training programs with a focus on de-escalation, cultural awareness and bias recognition while reinforcing clear policies that prioritize the sanctity of life and the appropriate use of force.
“The Sheriff’s Office also actively engages with community members and leaders to listen, learn, and strengthen trust,” Cappetto said. “When disparities are identified, we are committed to investigating the underlying causes and implementing meaningful changes to policies, training, and practices to ensure accountability and fairness for every person in our community.”
Cappetto added that the Sheriff’s Office is committed to responding to each call for service and reacting with the least amount of force necessary to resolve the issue. She noted that the agency follows all state use-of-force laws and policies when training and teaching deputies the definition of “necessary” as defined by state law.
The law she cited to define “necessary,” RCW 10.120.010, says: “Under the totality of the circumstances, a reasonably effective alternative to the use of physical force or deadly force does not appear to exist, and the type and amount of physical force or deadly force used is a reasonable and proportional response to effect the legal purpose intended or to protect against the threat posed to the officer or others.”
Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello told The News Tribune that disproportionately in the use of force against people of color remains too high.
“Black and Native American residents continue to experience force at rates notably higher than their share of the population warrants, and that is not acceptable,” Mello said in a written statement. “The narrowing of the disparity for Black residents is encouraging, but it is not enough.”
Lyle Quasim, the chair of the Tacoma-Pierce County Black Collective, was somewhat skeptical of the report’s accuracy. The News Tribune sent him the report and several key statistics. He said it could be debated whether deputies’ uneven use of force is improving, and that any racial disparity is unacceptable.
“I want to know what the plan is to eliminate the disproportionality in terms of the use of force,” Quasim said. “That’s the way forward. Not that, I hit you upside the head three times, and then I hit you upside the head six times. Are we having a good time? No. Quit hitting me upside the head. Stop the disproportionality.”
According to the report, Black people make up six percent of residents in areas served by the Sheriff’s Office but accounted for 18 percent of use of force incidents in 2024. Native Americans or Alaska Natives made up 1 percent of the population but accounted for 2 percent of use-of-force incidents. Asian or Pacific Islanders made up 7 percent of the population but 8 percent of incidents.
Deputies most often used force against white people — 63 percent of all use-of-force incidents. White people make up 66 percent of the population.
Types of force used by deputies
Uses of force are broken into four categories in the report: non-physical, non-deadly, intermediate and deadly.
- Non-physical force isn’t likely to cause pain and uses the officer’s presence, such as verbal commands and handcuffing when the subject is compliant.
- Non-deadly force is likely to cause temporary pain or injury. It includes control tactics such as grabs and holds or the use of a leg restraint.
- Intermediate force has a greater risk of injury. It’s used in response to active resistance and includes when deputies strike someone or use a baton or Taser.
- Deadly force is expected to result in death or very serious injury. It’s used in response to the risk of deadly force from the subject and includes the use of firearms and vehicle ramming.
Less severe forms of force remained more common than intermediate and deadly force throughout 2016 to 2024. Across all force types in 2024, there were 547 use-of-force incidents. Most often, deputies used verbal commands that year (361 uses), followed by control tactics (348 uses) and then pointing a firearm at someone (143 uses).
The report did not address how the number of use of force incidents compares to the total number of police contacts. For some context, in 2024 there were 3,459 arrests in the areas the Sheriff’s Office patrols.
Use of force rising but below pre-pandemic levels
Incidents where deputies use force remain below pre-pandemic levels, but use-of-force incidents have been rising each year since 2021. There were 348 use-of-force incidents that year, compared to 547 in 2024, a 57 percent increase.
The report offered some “possible influences” that might have affected the number of use-of-force incidents. Those included a pandemic-era decline in arrests, significant staffing shortages in the Sheriff’s Office, changes to policy such as implementing body cameras and banning vascular neck restraints, as well as changes in laws governing vehicle pursuits.
The report did not include data about how often deputies are injured in use-of-force incidents.
A senior research and data analyst at the Finance Department told the Public Safety Committee on Feb. 23 that a more detailed analysis is planned for later this year that would examine the influence of those factors.
Use of force against Black people, Native Americans
Overall, Black people and Native Americans or Alaska Natives experienced the highest rates of use of force. Compared to 2023, the use-of-force rate against Black people in 2024 was lower across all severity levels except for deadly force, which was unchanged.
Uses of deadly force have remained fairly consistent each year — an annual average of seven incidents from 2016-2024 and a total of 60 across the time period. Not every use of deadly force results in a fatality. The News Tribune’s homicide records show Sheriff’s Office deputies fatally shot 13 people from 2021 through 2024.
One statistic requires a statistical caveat. In 2024, deputies used deadly force on Native Americans or Alaska Natives at 37 times the rate that deputies used deadly force on white people. That rate comes from a single incident, and the relatively small size of Native Americans’ population in unincorporated areas of the county — about 4,000 people — creates a large per-capita rate.
“That context is important for understanding the data, but it does not lessen the seriousness of the outcome,” Mello told The News Tribune. “Rates can still highlight meaningful patterns, and every incident involving deadly force deserves careful scrutiny and reflection.”
Transparency, engagement encouraged
Mello said one of his core commitments as executive has been to make sure Pierce County is doing work on use of force in the open. He said transparency is a tool for keeping people safe and holding institutions accountable.
“Since taking office, we have made meaningful improvements to how data is collected, how frequently it is shared, and how consistently it is reported to the public,” Mello said. “The fact that we are having this conversation today, grounded in regularly updated figures, reflects that progress.”
Data included in the 2024 use-of-force update is available on the website Open Pierce County. Mello said annual monitoring through publicly available data is how the county ensures the community can see what is happening, ask hard questions and achieve better outcomes.
It’s hard to say how the Sheriff’s Office’s use-of-force rate compares to the Tacoma Police Department. Although Tacoma has started reporting use-of-force data to a statewide database launched last summer, data is only available for half of 2025 and the start of 2026.
When Pierce County’s initial use-of-force report was published, The News Tribune had recently conducted an independent analysis of use-of-force incidents at the Tacoma Police Department that similarly showed that officers used force against Black people at roughly five times the rate they did against white people.
Beyond use-of-force statistics, Quasim is dissatisfied with the Sheriff’s Office’s engagement with communities of color. In a phone call Wednesday, he said the Black Collective’s social and legal justice committee last year met with the police chiefs for Lakewood and Tacoma, as well as the Sheriff’s Office.
“We had a responsible conversation with all of those law enforcement representatives except one,” Quasim said. “Keith Swank. Sheriff Swank.”
Quasim said they requested a meeting three months in advance and sent Swank a list of questions. Some of the 11 questions asked about the racial makeup of the Sheriff’s Office, policies for responses to behavioral health incidents, how the office addresses inappropriate conduct based on race and gender and what the department was doing to strengthen relationships with the Black community.
During the June meeting, Swank said he hadn’t received the questions, according to Quasim, which Quasim disputed. He said Swank was unprepared to provide answers, and when he began to try, he meandered. Quasim said he ended the meeting early and told Swank he would be happy to talk to him when he is prepared. Another meeting hasn’t happened.
Asked about the meeting, Swank told The News Tribune that he did not have or see the questions in advance and said the questions might have been lost. He said he was under the impression it was a meet-and-greet.
“He was supposed to reschedule the meeting, but he did not,” Swank said in an email. “This group endorsed my opponent and was biased towards me from the beginning. I spoke with them during the campaign, and it was a disrespectful engagement. I have more community meetings than any other sheriff or probably any chief, and those meetings, as you know are spread out across the county.”
