Candidate for Lewis County sheriff and current sheriff’s office deputy Danny Riordan recalls responding to a head-on collision on Interstate 5 many years ago, back when he worked as a volunteer firefighter for the unincorporated Thurston County community of Littlerock.
One Sunday, a car crossed the median of the interstate north of Grand Mound, causing a “mass collision.” Riordan recalls responding to the scene and seeing the hand of a motionless body beneath a car.
The vehicle blocked the rest of the body from view. He hit the truck with his hand, hoping the individual would respond. To his surprise, the hand moved.
“I hit the truck, just because of my gut,” Riordan said. “I hit the side of the truck and I’m like, ‘dude move your hand or else we’re walking away. He moved his hand, and that spun everything up.”
Months later, he received a subpoena to appear in court. The driver who had caused the crash was pleading not guilty, and Riordan was asked to testify. Riordan was shocked as he recalled the tests showing signs of substance use.
“That right there infuriated me,” Riordan said. “So I was like, ‘I’m gonna go try to be the hammer. I’m gonna go try to stop this before it gets to that point.’ I went and tested for Elma PD.”
That was back in 1999. Now, after a more than 25-year career in law enforcement, and nearly 23 years with the Lewis County Sheriff's Office, Riordan hopes to take the big office; and in that role, he plans to bring change.
“For me, this is the only way I can affect change and make us a better office to get the changes for our employees that they need, to look outside the box, to help the citizens,” Riordan said in a Tuesday interview with The Chronicle.
Riordan is one of four men in the race to become the next Lewis County sheriff as Rob Snaza heads into retirement. The others are former Centralia police Sgt. Tracy Murphy, Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Special Services Chief Gabriel Frase and Chehalis Deputy Chief Matt McKnight. The top two candidates in the August primary election will move on to the general election in November.
Riordan’s plans for the office, like most of the candidates, are big.
Similar to some of his competitors, Riordan has proposed that the sheriff’s office resume participation in interagency task forces such as the Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team (JNET), which was led by fellow candidate Murphy before he was fired from the department after a 30-year career last May.
Riordan would like to re-establish a regional SWAT team similar to one that he led earlier in his career, and he would like to see the return of volunteer and reserve programs at the county’s largest law enforcement agency.
Like many law enforcement officials, he’d also like to see more officers in uniform in the county, with a minimum of six deputies on duty operating under a sergeant and two deputies in East Lewis County. The standard count for deputies in the eastern part of the county currently is one.
Riordan is aware of a bleak budget outlook for the office, but he projects a confident attitude. He is certain there are grant funds to be had to support more deputies.
In this way, he differs from some law enforcement leaders in the state who warn against hiring officers or deputies reliant on grant funding, noting that it provides someone a temporary job without the funds to sustain a long-term position.
Riordan believes it’s necessary. He recalls being in a similar situation himself when he was hired at the Elma Police Department and was told by the chief at the time that he may only have a job for two years.
Riordan believed grants from organizations, such as the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force program, could help bolster the sheriff’s office’s personnel numbers.
He believes grants could also be a route to acquiring new technology, updated vehicles and providing valuable training.
Riordan sees more new deputies, even those funded by grants, as a good thing, arguing that positions often open up due to retirements or other changes, and when they don’t, he adds that a deputy with two years of experience would be valuable to agencies all over the state.
“We have to go out and find that money,” Riordan said. “We also have to be willing to have hard conversations with employees that we hire, meaning, ‘hey, we're going to hire you on this grant. It's a two-year grant.’”
He points to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office as a model for this approach and a good example for other aspects he hopes to change, such as communication with the public. With transparency a major issue in the race for sheriff, Riordan would like to engage the public in a way similar to the neighbor to the north.
“I like what Sheriff (Derek) Sanders has done,” Riordan said. “Because he's brought the community, he's got the community involved into what the sheriff's office is.”
Riordan has frequently cited Sanders and his social media engagement at recent election forum events. While remaining somewhat indifferent about Sanders himself, Riordan clearly sees the strategy as important.
Social media is at the center of some of Riordan’s plans for the office. He has proposed the office post more frequent updates on its Facebook page and even train sergeants to post updates directly from a scene. Other candidates, including Murphy and McKnight, have proposed similar ideas.
In the recent interview, Riordan went so far as to say enabling comments on the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page would be a day one priority if elected to office.
Riordan also has some big ideas about addressing issues with the corrections side of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, which he believes needs attention. The Lewis County Jail has struggled to retain employees, even having to ask its corrections deputies to come in on their days off to cover shifts, he noted.
Riordan said he believes the first step is to speak directly with corrections deputies. He pointed out he and Murphy share a similar approach on the matter.
“People don't leave because of money,” Riordan said. “People leave because of leadership. Even if the environment stays the same, if they're having communication, and they're having that, the fact that we're listening and we're trying, it's going to be better day one”
That being said, Riordan has also proposed some outside-the-box solutions to the staffing issues with the jail, suggesting that he would like to see patrol deputies step into the jail to cover a shift when necessary. He even suggested he would do so if elected.
“If that means that I go over there and work a tower because they need somebody over there, then that means I go over there and work a tower instead of going out, you know, on patrol with the guys,” Riordan said.
More on Riordan’s platform is available on his campaign Facebook page and on his website, which can be found at https://tinyurl.com/3cpbrrw8.
Learn more about the other three candidates in the race by visiting chronline.com and searching each candidate by name.
