TNT letters to the editor, 4/8/2021

Sheriff confrontation

Re: “Accountable as sheriff, learning as I grow in job,” (Ed Troyer guest op-ed, TNT, 4/4).

I found Sheriff Troyer’s approach to meeting the paper delivery person very odd.

I was walking my dog about 3 a.m. the other day and saw a car cruising my neighborhood, just a few blocks from Troyer’s neighborhood.

I didn’t know who it was, so I started walking over to the car to find out. I identified myself; he identified himself. Turns out he was my paper delivery person, whom I had never met.

He was really nice, had a college degree and was working on a second degree, with the goal of being an educator. He was a hard-working American trying to make life better for himself and his family.

Oh, yes, and he was Black, much bigger than me, half my age and as it turns out, a close relative to the delivery person Troyer confronted.

We all have different ways of greeting people, but I am so thankful I didn’t call 911, as I would have woken up my neighbors, wasted police resources and never had the opportunity to meet a person I feel privileged to have met.

Loren Combs, Tacoma

Sheriff confrontation

Re: “Ed Troyer has fractured public trust again,” (Matt Driscoll column, TNT, 3/24).

I recently heard a radio interview with Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer that told a much different story about his early-morning encounter with a news carrier than is being printed regularly in the Seattle Times and TNT.

Anyone who has read the TNT understands where Driscoll comes down. His comment that Troyer botched the Manuel Ellis police homicide investigation is self serving. These are two completely different situations, but not to Driscoll because he is self-appointed judge and jury on anything he can call racial.

If the TNT is really interested in doing something constructive, it might help the safety of paper carriers and the neighborhoods where they work to provide them with magnetic identification signs on the outside of each vehicle.

This would eliminate the need for volunteers of neighborhood watch groups to investigate these vehicles, which might otherwise arouse suspicion.

Dean L. Haner, Puyallup

Police misconduct

I am upset how Pierce County handled the criminal investigation into the death of Manuel Ellis.

The system is broken and we need to put something in place that addresses the difficulty of police investigating their colleagues for alleged crimes.

This is more than one case. We have seen time and again that the investigation of law enforcement by law enforcement is not adequate, cuts corners and cannot be trusted.

That is why I support House Bill 1267, the result of many meetings of the Governor’s Task Force on Independent Investigations of Police Use of Force.

The task force met for months evaluating the current law, listening to experts from law enforcement agencies and universities, and hearing from the prosecutor association, law enforcement leadership and unions, and from community members.

It recommended that a state office be created to do the criminal investigations, separate from local law enforcement. The problem being solved here is the inherent conflicts of interest present when investigating colleagues for possible crimes and misconduct.

Enacting HB1267 will provide a professional criminal investigation upon which a prosecutor can base their charging decision. Please support this bill.

Tara Chase, Tacoma

This story was originally published April 8, 2021 at 9:58 AM with the headline "TNT letters to the editor, 4/8/2021."