If you are a victim of crime in Kitsap County, it’s getting more and more likely that a gun is involved.

Weapon law violations are at a 10-year high, jumping 42% from 106 in 2023 to 150 in 2024. “A trend we have seen is more armed encounters, whether that be robberies or assaults. Even stolen cars cases have involved stolen weapons,” Sheriff John Gese said.

As Gese looks ahead to 2025, he said serious crimes will attract much of the department’s attention. “I would say the violent crimes – like the robberies, first-degree assaults, and serious domestic violence crimes – are the ones we are going to focus on.” Robberies and criminal activity involving weapons are on the rise. Robberies rose from 28 in 2023 to 42 in 2024.

On the positive side, burglaries dropped from a peak at 812 in 2022 to 439 last year. Stolen car incidents were driven down 50% from 581 in 2023 to 289 last year thanks to a focus of law enforcement in the county working together capturing repeated offenders.

Training also will be emphasized this year. “That has to do with having new employees,” Gese said. More than 40% of his deputies have been on the force less than five years. Following the pandemic a significant number of deputies either retired or left the office. The exodus resulted in numerous job openings that were filled with new deputies.

“It takes a lot of time and resources to make sure we’re getting people trained and keeping up with all the laws and the new best practices.”

Police reforms, borne out of the police killing in 2020 of George Floyd in Minneapolis, led to new training mandates on law enforcement. “We are required to have a certain amount of training every year on different programs like de-escalation and use of force training,” he said.

A particular focus will be active shooter training. That covers scenarios such as when a person goes to a school or shopping mall and opens fire, the sheriff noted. “We do see that as a serious threat these days. We’ve seen these incidents happen across the country. We saw what happened in Uvalde. It has reinforced to us how important it is to train and be prepared,” Gese said.

It has been years since such training has been done. “We did it almost every year and then with the pandemic, we had to cut way back on our training. Now, we have so many deputies new to the agency who have not had exposure (to that type of training). We are trying to catch up and get back into that,” he said.

Gese plans to conduct active shooter training in late spring or summer. It will involve police departments from Bainbridge Island, Poulsbo, Bremerton, Port Orchard, the State Patrol and the departments of public safety of the Port Gamble S’Klallam and Suquamish tribes.

“We are also working with local fire departments to come up with emergency plans because if there was a mass shooting, we would have many casualties,” he said. “All the local agencies want to work together in this. They’re all in the same boat. Training like this needs to be done on a recurring basis to reinforce it.”

Gese envisions the training involving lectures, virtual training and mock exercises in abandoned buildings and empty schools. “Real-life buildings add a lot to the training because you have different floors, different-size rooms and hallways. It gives us a lot better exposure to the potential things we could run into,” he said.

Staffing/funding

The sheriff’s office, like many law enforcement agencies, continues to have staffing challenges. The department is doing better at filling open positions, but additional deputies and corrections officers are needed, Gese said, while pointing out his staffing has not increased since 2008. The office is staffed with 126 deputies and 96 corrections officers.

“I’ve been telling the commissioners our county is growing, but our sheriff’s office is not. I have a hard time keeping pace with the expectations,” Gese admitted. He unsuccessfully lobbied for additional positions. “I asked for eight positions across the agency but got zero additional staff members,” he said.

Meanwhile, the number of 911 calls has steadily increased. In 2020, at the start of the pandemic, the agency had 65,461 calls for service. In 2024, there were 78,393.

Gese indicated he will continue to look for ways to boost funding. That includes pushing for a criminal justice sales tax in Kitsap, a proposal he said county commissioners are receptive to but want public input. The sheriff is also looking to Olympia for financial support. The governor has proposed providing $100 million for initial hiring and retaining officers and funding bills to assist with costs, Gese said. The additional funding could not come at a better time. Washington continues to rank lowest of any state for officers per 1,000 residents, and the sheriff’s office often ranks in the bottom five of agencies in the state, Gese reported.

Continued outreach

During 2025 the sheriff’s office will continue to connect with the community on social media, via speaking engagements and attending community events. “We are making an effort to show transparency in what we’re doing here. We’ve leveraged our social media to try and tell our story and explain to people what’s going on out in their community,” he said.

Coffee with a Cop events and meeting the Boys and Girls Club are examples of how KCSO will interact with residents. Town Halls and a public safety citizens academy, which provides the public the opportunity to learn about local law enforcement, are also planned.

“We are trying to build relationships with all sectors of our community. It helps educate us as we hear people’s concerns. It’s also an opportunity for us to educate them. They get a better insight into our profession when they get a chance to talk to us face-to-face,” he said.

Jail needs

The sheriff’s office runs the county jail, which has an average daily population of 300, but is an aging facility, Gese said. “It’s an expensive proposition trying to maintain the jail given its age and structure,” he said, adding plumbing leaks are being mended and a multi-million-dollar repair roof is planned.

On a positive financial note, the corrections facility is part of pilot project that allows the facility to bill for medical services inmates receive through Medicaid. “This could be a big thing for us because we pay over $6 million a year for medical contract services. This might help us reimburse some of those costs,” he said.