Sheriff Swank seeks to intimidate reporter with 70 emails | Opinion
Since January, the sheriff of Pierce County has emailed a News Tribune reporter more than 70 times. They aren’t responses to specific questions from Peter Talbot, our criminal justice reporter. Instead, they’re an unprofessional and childish attempt to make a reporter regret writing a story about him.
This message, sent Jan 2, set the tone.
“I’m calling it a night,” sheriff Keith Swank wrote at 9:54 PM. “I hope I put enough in for the ‘public time’ today. I figure I’ll email you at my start and stop times. BTW I worked yesterday 1/1/26 for several hours. I didn’t see any other elected officials working.”
It was his fourth email to Talbot about his working hours that day.
At the time, the reporter was working on a story about how much time Swank spends on social media. After Talbot asked the sheriff some questions for the story, Swank began taking a few moments most days to tell the reporter exactly how much he’d been working. Sometimes he sent three or four emails in the same day.
The story ran on Jan. 8. The sheriff’s messages to Talbot have ebbed and flowed, but they still come three months later. Many of them drip with sarcasm and imply that Swank works much harder than Talbot.
One or two emails along these lines would be petty. But more than 70 emails amounts to a passive-aggressive campaign of harassment against a reporter who is doing his job.
If Swank were a regular Pierce County resident, The News Tribune would probably consider filing a restraining order and move on to the next thing. But this behavior from an elected official needs a light shined on it.
Swank’s response seems fixated on the fact that anyone dared question how he uses his time. It appears designed to chill questions from the press, making sure the person asking knows they’ll never hear the end of it. It smacks of payback against a journalist.
This is beyond inappropriate behavior from a public official.
“I’m sure you are still tucked in bed sleeping soundly”
The piece Talbot was working on ran with the headline, “Does Sheriff Keith Swank spend too long on ‘X’? Our analysis says not really.”
It was part of The News Tribune’s “Reality Check” series, where reporters look into an issue that folks are talking about and break down the facts of the matter.
In the week leading up to the story’s publication, Swank emailed Talbot 19 times. A few responded to the reporter’s questions, and the rest were unsolicited updates on the sheriff’s work schedule.
For example, the sheriff sent the reporter three messages before 11 a.m. on Saturday, Jan 3. The final message that day, sent at 10:42 a.m., said, “I’m going to take a break for a bit and spend some time with my wife. Don’t worry, I’ll have my phone with me in case someone calls, and I have to perform sheriff duties.”
The overall message isn’t subtle, as these other email excerpts make clear:
Jan. 3: “I’m sure you are still tucked in bed sleeping soundly. I’m up working.”
Jan. 4: “I’ve already been sheriffing for about 4 hours today. Have you been working this weekend?”
Jan. 4: “Good night, sleep tight. We’ll keep the county safe.”
Jan. 5: “I slept in a little this morning. I hope that is ok with the public.”
Jan. 6: “In a few minutes I will be heading to UPS for a forum. You should go. Maybe you’re off the clock though.”
Jan. 19: “It’s a holiday, but I am working. I’ve been giving interviews for various topics from various organizations. Are you working today?”
Jan. 21: “Good morning Peter. I’m working. You’re prolly sleeping. Let me know when you get that story together.”
Feb. 11: “I’m traveling today (vacation), but I will still be working while I am away. Maybe I’ll send you a picture.”
Some of the notes had sign-offs like “toodles” and “night-night.”
Public figures need to be grown-ups
Swank has been highly active on social media as sheriff, responding to posts from other public figures and posting his thoughts on national events. His posts are intentionally provocative, asking questions like, “Do you think it’s time to ban trans people from owning guns?”
That was from a post in late August. At the time, I said the sheriff should focus on the county, not social media provocation. I’m not the only one who asked why the sheriff was using his time this way, though. It seems that he’d had enough of these questions by the time Talbot started working on his piece.
The reporter took a question that people in the community were asking — Is the sheriff distracted from his job by his online habits — and tried to shed some light on it. That involved reaching out to Swank for his perspective before publishing. That’s Talbot’s job.
Being sheriff, especially an elected one, is a job that comes with questions you might not like. And if you court attention with a big platform, don’t be surprised when you get it.
A public figure needs to be a grown-up. A law enforcement leader needs to be a grown-up.
In the meantime, The News Tribune will keep doing its job.
