Steve Brown seeks office of Okanogan County Sheriff

BREWSTER – Steve Brown, a deputy in the Okanogan County Sheriff’s office, is running for the office of Okanogan County sheriff. Brown has degrees in Parks and Recreation, Wildlife, and Criminal Justice. He began his law enforcement career as a deputy for the Colville Confederated Tribes in 1999. Two years later he was hired as a full-time detective on the Okanogan County Drug Task Force. Currently he serves as the Chief Criminal Deputy for that unit.

Brown is running against fellow Sheriff’s Office deputy Tony Hawley.

Brown recently answered a series of questions from the Quad City Herald regarding his campaign.
1. You mentioned working with youth. How would you increase the Sheriff’s Office exposure to youth?
Encourage additional participation in the school youth lunch program to include scheduling each deputy a day throughout the year to attend.  Also continue with the kids fishing days, our cold water and water safety events for youth, shop with a cop, pinewood derby along with many other youth activities the Sheriff’s office is involved in.  We will continue to participate in all of these programs.

2. What changes would you like to make in the department and why?
I will reinstate the property crimes unit that my opponent voted to disband in 2017.  This unit was created by me in 2017 to address the increase of property crimes that were being committed in our County.  The unit was responsible for the most significant reduction in property crimes from 2015-2017.  In 2018 we have seen a steady increase in property crimes and are on pace to see the highest numbers of property crimes committed in this county since 2015.  As your Sheriff I will immediately re-instate this unit.  I will also remove the administrative sergeant’s position and return those duties to the field.  The Sheriff’s office staffing levels and budget are slim, the administrative sergeant serves papers, and at times assisted the jail with court room services such as in custody hearings or court room security.  Since that time the jail has hired additional personal and that position needs to be returned to the field.

3. Do you support or oppose any current legislative bills related to law enforcement?
I have been asked about Initiative 1639. My position on Initiative 1639, I am opposed to.  I have read this initiative multiple times, its 40 pages in length and although it does point out the all too common violence experienced by many, I disagree with a number of sections within this initiative.  For example, I disagree with the definition in the initiative of what a “semi-automatic assault rifle” is.  According to this initiative, a 10-22 would be classified as a semi-automatic assault rifle.  I am an avid outdoorsman, a hunter, I target shoot, I am also a law enforcement officer and although I do not know of every crime committed throughout the United States, I am unaware of any criminal who used a 10-22 to commit such heinous crimes as were described in the initiative. These semi-automatic small caliber rifles are used for small game or target practice.  To classify this as an assault rifle, in which I would be subject to the same requirements and more such as a concealed pistol permit, a background check and additional training is wrong.  

This initiative also has the ability to criminalize a victim with a potential felony charge. “A person who stores or leaves a firearm in a location where the person knows, or reasonably should know, that a prohibited person may gain access to the firearm.” According to who is my question?  I’m a reasonable person, and I know that criminals break into people’s homes, does this subject me to a potential felony crime if I become the victim of a burglary and someone steals my firearm and then uses my firearm to commit a crime, I believe it does and I don’t want that interpretation of the law left up to someone else about what I should, “reasonably know.”

Again, this initiative is 40 pages in length and it cannot accurately be described in this one article but I am opposed to this.

4. What issues do you identify as most pressing for the Sheriff’s Office to address?
Budget issues continue to be a priority that the Sheriff must address.  Over a 16-year period on average 85% of the Sheriff’s office budget is used for wages and benefits, in August of 2018 that percentage was well above 90%.  That leaves very little money to maintain field, records, communications and corrections divisions.  The Sheriff’s office has been successful in the past using grant funds to assist with some of these expenses but this cannot and should not continue, at least at an increasing level.  Grants are not “free,” these dollars do come from tax payers, and there are always some strings attached to grants.  Some of those are easily managed by the Sheriff’s office such as the STOP grant.  This grant provides $10,000 in funding to the Sheriff’s office to provide advanced training in sexual assault and domestic violence with little string attached.  The Sheriff’s office has historically used these funds to send our employees to the National Institute of Crime Prevention training as well as sending a Spanish speaking Omak Police officer to hostage negotiation training.  This is a grant that’s sustainable.

On the other hand, the Sheriff’s office maintains the Stone Garden grant.  The grant award amount changes from year to year but is literally in the tens of thousands of dollars.  In the past vehicle purchases were allowed from this grant which helped manage are aging fleet.  Over the last few years vehicle purchases have not been allowed from this grant and this has taken a toll on the mileage of our fleet.  The grant provides over time funding for the Sheriff’s office to assist in border patrol operations and additional patrols on the border, which I agree are important.  The question is, at what cost is this no longer becoming beneficial to the County.  I believe the tough decision has to be made now, either vehicle purchases will be allowed under this grant or the Sheriff’s office can no longer accept this grant by only paying overtime and adding literally thousands and thousands of miles on County vehicles with no return in the form of fleet management.

5. What other comments or observations would you like to add that have not been covered in the above questions?
We are public servants working for the citizens of this County.  I believe in accountability and transparency.  As your Sheriff I will hold quarterly public meetings throughout the County so that members of our communities can come ask questions and get answers from the Sheriff.  During this election process and traveling around the County I have heard from several citizens who are unaware of all the things the Sheriff’s office does, what the crime trends are and what their tax dollars pay for.  I think it is important that the citizens have an opportunity to be well informed, ask questions and get answers.  The Prosecutor is an elected official just as the Sheriff, I believe this would be a great opportunity for both to attend and speak to the public about issues and I would extend the invite to the Prosecutor to attend these quarterly meetings.