POULSBO — A Poulsbo Police Department officer is on paid administrative leave pending an investigation by the Washington State Patrol into an allegation made by his estranged wife, a Kitsap County Sheriff’s officer.

“They are going through marital strife. There’s a lot of emotions right now,” said Lt. Bruce Lantz, assistant division commander of the Washington State Patrol. He added, “There was no physical contact.”

Poulsbo Police Chief Alan Townsend would not disclose the identity or rank of his officer, saying only that Washington State Patrol is investigating and that the allegation is “domestic related.”

Lantz said the allegation involves a single incident that allegedly occurred last week.

“I’ve got the majority of interviews knocked out already,” Lantz said Dec. 9. He is going to review some surveillance video — “It takes a little while to coordinate that,” he said — and expects to have his investigation report completed in about three weeks. He expects the decision of whether to prosecute will be up to a prosecuting attorney in another county, to avoid conflict of interest.

Townsend said he put his officer on paid administrative leave on Dec. 6 after the Sheriff’s Department notified him that day of the investigation. He said he expects to know more about the State Patrol’s investigation by the end of the week.

“We will also be doing an internal investigation — an administrative investigation — to make sure there was no violation of our policy and procedures,” Townsend said.

Sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Scott Wilson confirmed that the allegation involved “uniformed officers within two agencies.”

“Because these are allegations at this time, involving uniformed officers by two agencies, WSP was asked [by the Sheriff’s Department] to conduct the investigation,” Wilson said.