The Washington State Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs’ leadership said it will consider expelling Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank over comments he made during a legislative hearing Thursday.
Swank testified during a Senate Committee on Law and Justice meeting on a bill that would, in part, impose stricter eligibility requirements on those running for sheriff.
Senate Bill 5974, if passed, would implement a new background investigation process for police chief, marshal and sheriff candidates. It would also place limits on volunteers and increase the age minimum to 25 years old.
During his passionate testimony, Swank told lawmakers they don’t understand the weight of the bill and also spoke out against a separate bill being considered this legislative session banning masks for law enforcement officials.
“I don’t recognize your authority to impose these controls over me,” Swank said. “And when you try to remove me from office, thousands of Pierce County residents will surround the county city building in downtown Tacoma and will not allow that to happen.”
Additionally, Swank said if the legislature passes the mask ban, he’d instruct his deputies to wear them anyway to “see what the (lawmakers) would do.”
In a rare move, the police and sheriffs association President, Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels, and the association’s Executive Director Steven Strachan condemned Swank for his testimony in a statement Thursday evening. While the organization has “grave concerns” about the bill, they said Swank went too far, and they’ll begin their process to consider expulsion.
“The scope of his testimony went beyond reasonable dialogue and devolved into what could be perceived as threatening to legislators and he challenged their constitutional authority.” Nowels and Strachan said.
Expulsion would not remove him from his position as sheriff, but it would oust him from the organization. The organization, in part, develops statewide public safety programs and serves as a collective voice for law enforcement leadership. The association is governed by its 14-member executive board. Eight votes are required for member expulsion, per its bylaws.
Swank, in an interview Thursday night, said expulsion may be the best option.
“I’ve been at odds with them for most of the time I’ve been a sheriff, which has only been a year, and so I guess it might be best if they separate ways with me and their opinions,” he said. “So I’m OK with it.”
He said one of his issues with the bill is that, unlike police chiefs and marshals, who are appointed, sheriffs are elected.
“I wasn’t elected chief of police, I was elected sheriff,” he said. “So that’s the big deal there, too, because they’re lumping me in with people who are appointed, who are political appointees that aren’t elected, and we should be separate, completely separate.”
Last week, Swank and Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders got into a heated online argument in the wake of Renee Good’s death in Minneapolis, accusing each other of cowardice, laziness and racist policing.
Swank is an outspoken conservative who often prods the state’s leading Democrats on social media. He previously ran as a Republican for Congress, though the sheriff’s race is nonpartisan.
Swank spent 33 years with the Seattle Police Department before retiring in 2023. That year, he drew criticism for disparaging comments about transgender people — which he has since reiterated — and for defending the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
After Swank’s retirement from SPD, former interim Chief Sue Rahr signed a disciplinary report citing his social media activity and said he would have been fired had he still been employed. Swank called the report “politically motivated.”
A spokesperson for the association said Thursday night it is still early in the expulsion process, and charges against Swank have not yet been finalized.
