Sheriff Swank: Step up if you want the public’s trust | Opinion
When the public has reason to suspect a law enforcement official got special treatment from the sheriff’s department, the moment calls for leadership. But while questions swirl around the behavior of personnel in the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, leadership is in short order.
Instead, sheriff Keith Swank used a news conference Thursday to blame other people and complain about an unrelated grievance.
That’s not good enough. Personnel on the scene of a traffic collision appear to have limited the amount of evidence available for any investigation into the culpability of a commanding officer after his truck struck an SUV holding a family with children. We need better answers than this.
Pressed on what he can do to make sure his personnel are held accountable for their alleged actions, Swank claimed that he lacks the ability to discipline staff for turning off body-worn cameras. He blamed the previous sheriff for what he called a poorly written policy, and suggested his hands are tied unless the deputies’ guild agrees to changes.
Somehow this serious inquiry into whether a law enforcement agency treats everyone fairly turned into a stump speech about how unfair things are for Sheriff Swank.
The sheriff said repeatedly that the body cameras should have been on, and that no one should get special treatment from his department. He also confirmed that an internal investigation is looking into whether employees violated policy.
“If there was something that was done wrong,” Swank said, “the people who did that will be held accountable.”
Still, he continually circled back to explanations for why his hands may well be tied.
Who else but Swank is ultimately responsible for conduct that defies the concept of investigating a potential crime scene?
This is the sheriff’s responsibility
Red flags started popping up in when information came out about staff from the sheriff’s office not using their body cameras at the scene of a traffic collision in July. Court documents filed in the case Wednesday note two deputies and a sergeant either not turning on or turning off their cameras.
The crash involved Maj. Chad Dickerson of the sheriff’s department. According to the Washington State Patrol, Dickerson was driving a pickup that struck an SUV holding children, their parents, and their grandmother at an intersection near Graham.
Staff from the sheriff’s office also seemed to take the major at his word that he wasn’t impaired, and let Dickerson and family members who met him there clear debris from the crash and remove things from his truck.
A deputy eventually called in the Washington State Patrol to investigate. But staff let Dickerson leave before a trooper with the Washington State Patrol arrived to investigate.
This missed opportunities to collect what any layperson would understand to be potential evidence. It shouldn’t have to be explained that collecting evidence, or at least not allowing it to be destroyed, is essential to competent law enforcement.
A State Patrol trooper arrested Dickerson hours later at a hospital after smelling alcohol on him. Dickerson has now been charged with two counts of DUI vehicular assault. On Friday, the sheriff’s department announced Dickerson would retire, effective that day.
Complaints about Robnett
Swank said he learned of the charges on Wednesday, when Pierce County prosecuting attorney Mary Robnett informed him of them by phone. For whatever reason, the sheriff chose to lead his news conference with a complaint that Robnett had not informed him before the charges were filed, and didn’t send him copies of the court documents.
The sheriff has been openly feuding with Robnett for months in his fight to get out of relying on her for legal advice, something he’s legally required to do, and that he said he would do during his campaign for the sheriff’s office. His end goal is to find a legal way to work with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which state law explicitly bars him from doing.
The real matter at hand was the behavior of sheriff’s department personnel at the crash scene. But when reporters asked him about it, the excuses started piling on.
The current policy for body-worn cameras says that deputies “should” turn on body cameras in certain situations, Swank said. The crash scene was one of those situations. But that apparently gives some discretion to deputies.
Swank would like to change the wording to “shall,” to solidify the requirement. I agree that any gray area should be eliminated from the policy. But I can’t believe this one word means Swank can do nothing about this type of behavior.
Reached for comment, the Pierce County Deputy Sheriff’s Guild seemed interested in changing the policy.
The guild said it bargained the policy when the department began using body-worn cameras in 2022. It has also worked with the current sheriff department on improving the policy since then, but said the updates have been stalled.
“We support the use of body cameras and collective bargaining to deliver effective public safety,” the guild said in a statement.
I respect the fact that every institution has rules and limitations in how it handles personnel matters. Just like Dickerson should get due process in the court system, the sheriff has to abide by negotiated department policy.
But the integrity of the sheriff’s department is on the line. If the sheriff can’t find a way to meet the moment and make his employees’ behavior his own responsibility, he’s letting the whole county down.
This story was originally published October 24, 2025 at 3:15 PM.
