Deputy Joseph Yazzolino

Powers that be
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office

America is a nation of laws. And because laws without enforcement are meaningless, Americans have created the most complex and extensive law enforcement system on the face of the earth. In the process, we incarcerate more people than any other country. Law enforcement in the United States has evolved from being a personal activity to encompassing a vast network of criminal justice, courts and corrections with all crimes considered to be committed against the government, not the individual.

There are four levels of law enforcement: the Federal, the State, the County and the Municipal or City. At the Federal level, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is the largest law enforcement agency. It includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), the United States Marshals Service, and others. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), formed by the US Patriot Act, is another branch with numerous federal law enforcement agencies reporting to it. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), United States Secret Service (USSS), United States Coast Guard (USCG), and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are some of the agencies that report to DHS.

Most states operate statewide agencies that provide law enforcement duties, including investigations and state patrols. In Oregon we have the Oregon State Police. In addition, the Attorney General’s office has its own state bureaus of investigation.

Founded on principles established in England, law enforcement was originally a privately-contracted business arrangement. If you had no money, law enforcement was up to you, as is evidenced by the many stories of vigilantism in The Old West. Now, the US has about 18,000 law enforcement agencies, more than any other country on earth. And more money is spent in the US on private security (e.g. business security guards) than on public policing.

In 12th century England, the practice of resolving disputes privately gave way to a system of group protection, called the tithing system. In larger areas, ten tithings were grouped together to form a hundred, and one or several hundreds constituted a shire. The shire was under the direction of the Shire Reeve from which the word “sheriff” is derived.

The Statute of Winchester, in 1285, formalized the constable-watch system of protection. One man from each parish was selected to be constable. Citizens were drafted as (unpaid) watchmen, and were required to come to the aid of a constable or watchman who called for help. In rural areas, a system of Sheriff and Posses were often used. These are the systems the American colonists brought with them.

In 1626, the New York City Sheriff’s Office was founded. In 1635, the Town of Boston started its first “Night Watch”. The first modern police department established in the United States was the Boston Police Department in 1838, followed by the New York City Police Department in 1845.

Municipal police departments range from one-officer agencies (sometimes still called the town marshal) to the 40,000 men and women of the New York City Police Department.

Metropolitan departments have jurisdiction covering multiple communities and municipalities, often over a wide area typically including one or more cities or counties. Some county sheriff’s departments are contracted to provide full police services to local cities within their counties.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office is a “full-service” agency providing all traditional law-enforcement functions, including countywide patrol and investigations irrespective of municipal boundaries. The Sheriff is also contracted by the cities of Gaston and Banks, cities too small to have their own police departments, to provide deputies dedicated to serving those municipalities.

The Sheriff is the primary law enforcement service provider for the Cedar Mill community. A sheriff is fundamentally different from a chief of police. A chief is ordinarily appointed by a city council. A chief often has the city manager as their immediate supervisor. Your sheriff is directly elected by a vote of the people and is the chief executive officer of the county focused on issues involving public safety. While there are no intermediaries between you and your sheriff, both the budget for the Sheriff’s Office and county policies pertaining to its operations are set by the elected county Board of Commissioners (BCC)..

There are many operational differences between a sheriff’s office and a police department. The sheriff provides county-wide services: maintaining a jail used by all law enforcement agencies, providing security in courtrooms, serving civil court processes (lawsuit documents), enforcing court orders, issuing concealed handgun licenses and maintaining warrants, among other functions not found in a police department. In the Cedar Mill community, when you call 9-1-1, normally a deputy sheriff will respond to answer your concerns.

One of the specially-marked ESPD patrol cars

Your Sheriff’s primary patrol resources are assigned to specific geographic areas throughout the county. In addition to the normal level of county service, Cedar Mill voters approved funding for the Enhanced Sheriff’s Patrol District (ESPD), so we pay additional property taxes to provide an urban level of law enforcement services. Initially passed in 1987 as a three-year serial levy of $3.4 million per year, it has been consistently re-approved by voters. In 1993, voters approved a four-year levy extension of $6.4 million per year that was subsequently reduced to $5.5 million by Measure 50 and converted to a permanent rate of $.64 /1,000 of assessed value. In 1997, a five-year $4.5 million per year local option levy was passed which was added to the District’s permanent tax rate authorized by M50. In 2002 and again in 2008 voters approved five-year local option levies.

In Cedar Mill, there are normally about three deputies on patrol in our area, plus corporals and sergeants assigned to serve a broader area that includes Cedar Mill. This is in addition to services that are provided countywide, such as Traffic Safety Unit patrols and missions, gang enforcement, canine team responses, crime prevention, jail operations, and many others.

At times, city (Beaverton, Hillsboro) police officers may provide backup policing services as requested, just as deputies provide back up to city officers. You may also see them pass through the area for other reasons, such as when an investigation of a crime that happened in their city requires follow-through in unincorporated areas. You may also see city officers in the areas when they deploy for cooperative traffic details or other reasons.

The Beaverton Police Department has jurisdiction in some areas within and surrounding Cedar Mill, generally on segments of roadways, so it is not uncommon for officers to initiate traffic or subject stops in these areas. Sheriff’s deputies also perform a high number of the same activities inside Beaverton city limits. This is due to the fact that ESPD patrol districts border the city of Beaverton. Accordingly, deputies frequently pass through the city in the course of their daily activities.

There are differences between rural and urban policing. Factors include population and deputies per thousand (about .5 per thousand in rural areas compared to about 1 per thousand in urban ESPD areas). The biggest differences are the ESPD and geo-policing concepts. All deputies receive the same excellent training and are held to the same high standards of service, mission and core values.

Citizens often wonder how to respond to homeless people as the problem is increasing throughout the county. It is not illegal to be homeless; however, there can be trespassing issues if people live in camps on private property, for instance. Citizens should report any criminal or suspicious activity so it can be investigated and documented. The county’s Health & Human Services (HHS) department has an outreach group to help refer people to safe shelters and other resources.

At the prompting of the county’s HHS volunteer advisory Behavioral Health Council, the “Memphis model” is now used for a Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) class. All deputies receive an initial four hours of CIT and usually two-to-four hours refresher per year. This is in addition to the initial Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training (DPSST) basic class that includes a three-hour block of instruction on dealing with the mentally ill. Also the Use-of-Force Scenario-based training specifically constructs situations in which an officer encounters a mentally ill person or potential threat.

While Cedar Mill is not a high crime area, the deputies assigned to this area are working hard. To give you an idea, from November 2009 to January 2010, deputies wrote 126 reports, responded to 283 calls from dispatch, and self-initiated 401 calls (generally violations or crimes in progress that they observed)

There are two main things citizens can do to reduce crime–secure your belongings and report suspicious activity. After all, over the past five years, 60% of residential burglaries were committed in our area without the need to force entry.

The county’s Community Corrections department, providing Probation and Parole supervision plus cutting-edge treatment programs with a high rate of success, works intimately with the Sheriff’s Office and will be the subject of a future article in the Cedar Mill News.

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