Pierce County Sheriff Faces Questions on Key Peninsula

Swank pointed to recent crime trends as a sign of progress, saying violent crime in unincorporated Pierce County is down 17%, with property crime down 22%.”

Nearly 40 people packed into the Key Center Library March 21 for Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank’s “Checking in with the Sheriff” event, a two-hour meeting that at times felt less like a routine update and more like a community airing frustrations.

Outside, about 20 protesters gathered, many holding signs critical of federal immigration enforcement, and shouting “You are not above the law” as he entered the building. 

Inside, the tone shifted between respectful dialogue, pointed questioning, and confrontation — reflecting the concerns of residents grappling with both local safety and national tensions.

Swank started by discussing a recent crime that hit close to home. 

On Feb. 24, 32-year-old Aleksandr Shablykin killed his mother and three others in Wauna before being fatally shot by a responding deputy, raising questions about response times, communication, and whether anything could have prevented the violence.

He pushed back on the idea that additional deputies could have changed the outcome, saying they were following standard procedures. The department has “six or seven” mental health specialists, or co-responders, on duty to respond to similar crises.

“Maybe more deputies would have made a difference, maybe not,” he said.

For many residents, though, the conversation extended beyond a single incident.

Several speakers voiced frustration over what they saw as a disconnect between local safety priorities and what was described as the sheriff’s sometimes pugilistic public messaging, where he has commented on the tactics of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in other cities, the ethics of local law enforcement wearing masks, the rights of transgender people, and the office of Pierce County Sheriff as an elected official rather than an appointed position. 

Swank acknowledged that his role differs from that of a traditional police chief, describing the elected sheriff’s position as inherently political and shaped by interactions with elected officials, lawmakers, and the public.

“I want my sheriff to focus on keeping people in our community safe,” one resident said, pointing to concerns about reckless driving, property crime, and emergency response times on the KP.

Others raised concerns about Swank’s rhetoric concerning immigration enforcement, even as Swank repeatedly emphasized that the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office does not work with federal immigration authorities such as ICE. He said he had done so successfully during his career as a police officer in Seattle in the 1990s and early 2000s.

“We don’t work with ICE at all,” he said. “But I support removing violent felons from our communities, whether they are legal citizens or illegal aliens. … Did you know that ICE has removed 1,500 violent felons from our community in the last year?”

ICE has arrested approximately 1,950 people in Washington state since January 2025, according to the Deportation Data Project of UC Berkeley, an increase of 35% from the previous year. From January to May, 41% of those had criminal records, and another 16% had pending criminal charges. Just over 31% of suspects arrested since June have criminal records, with another 17% facing charges.

Swank described the Jan. 7 ICE shooting of Renée Good in her car in Minneapolis as an exception to the “best practices” adhered to by law enforcement, saying his deputies are trained not to endanger themselves by attempting to block a vehicle with their bodies, or to fire their weapons at one. At the same time, he emphasized that officers must be free to defend themselves when someone is interfering with their duties.

The meeting also touched on staffing shortages, with 37 deputy positions currently vacant in Pierce County and competition from neighboring agencies offering higher pay and hiring bonuses. 

Swank said his department has shifted its recruitment strategy, bringing in a professional law enforcement recruiting firm with a goal of reaching full staffing within a year. He mentioned that he can’t request additional deputy positions from the Pierce County Council to help support the KP until existing vacancies are filled. 

There are approximately 192 active duty deputies on the force now, or about .57 deputies per 1,000 residents, according to the county’s 2024-2025 biennial budget. 

Swank said that is the lowest rate “in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.”

The national average is 2.4 officers per 1,000 residents, according to FBI data. 

He also said the county is preparing its first comprehensive review of deputy deployment in more than a decade to better align resources with population growth and service needs. 

Swank pointed to recent crime trends as a sign of progress, saying violent crime in unincorporated Pierce County is down 17%, with property crime down 22%. 

Swank also told KP News he was particularly proud of restarting the department’s Internet Crimes Against Children unit — a program he said had been inactive for several years before he took office. It has led to 27 arrests, with more cases under investigation.

Still, for many in attendance, the immediate concerns remained local: how quickly help can arrive and what residents should expect when emergencies unfold in a rural community.

Swank acknowledged those realities directly.

“Out here, you live far away from things,” he said. “That’s part of the beauty — but it’s also part of the problem.”

Swank said that reality also shapes how residents think about personal safety, emphasizing that deputies can’t always arrive in time to prevent violence.

“It’s not the duty of law enforcement to protect people individually; it is to protect communities,” he said. “People have to make sure they’re able to defend themselves.”

He added that, in his view, it can include responsible firearm ownership and training. The comments drew pushback from some in attendance, who argued residents should be able to rely on law enforcement rather than arming themselves.

“If somebody breaks into your house and they’re determined to kill you, by the time deputies arrive, you could already be dead,” Swank said.

He described himself as a “Second Amendment absolutist.” When he was asked if that included transgender people, he revisited a comment he’d made on social media in September, saying it was intended to be provocative in response to the state legislature’s attempts to increase gun control. Following a school shooting in Minneapolis, Swank posted, “Do you think it’s time to ban trans people from owning guns?” referring to conflicting claims about the shooter, adding that no one with a mental illness should have access to a firearm.

When health professionals in the audience pointed out that being transgender was not a mental illness defined in the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” a standard reference book on mental health, Swank said gender dysphoria is listed as a condition. 

Gender dysphoria appears in the DSM and is defined by the American Psychiatric Association as intense, persistent distress resulting from a mismatch between assigned sex and experienced gender, not a mental illness arising from the identity itself.

Swank asked the audience, “What is a woman? Can you tell me that?”

Ted Olinger contributed to this report.