Recently, debate has heated up regarding the Snoqualmie Police Department. The city is growing fast and Weyerhauser stopped subsidizing the department in 2000. The recent discussion is to determine if we continue to pay for the large, 102-year-old police force we have (which apparently costs 25% of the city budget) or begin contracting with King County for certain police services (which may take away from the personal touches many are used to and the feeling building a city with our own police department).
Somebody from the Snoqualmie Yahoo group posted a link to this Seattle Times article discussing the issue. I’m hoping to make it to tonite’s Town Hall Meeting for the Root Beer Float social, but it turns out that after the social, the police will be making a presentation. Since I”m unaware of all the pros and cons, I’m not quite sure where I stand on this issue. However, at first glance I’m not sure why this would be such a bad idea if we save money and, as the article notes:
“It could be possible for the city to eventually contract with King County for some regional services, such as SWAT teams, but keep its own department for day-to-day police work.”
A particulare paragraph in the article caught my attention.
“Snoqualmie is the second-fastest-growing city in the state, having boomed from 1,500 residents in 1997 to about 6,500 today. And with the massive Snoqualmie Ridge urban village still growing, the city is expected to grow to 13,000 people by 2010.”
Wow…second-fastest-growing city in the state. So how is it so difficult for our city to come to an agreement with a supermarket? *sigh* You’d think it would be prime location.
Piya's Perspective 
I think that if city’s such as Fall city and North bend can contract out police services so should we in Snoqualmie. These city’s are also expanding and growing and do not appropriate nearly the amount of funds to policing that Snoqualmie does. I heard that Snoqualmie police officers are some of the highest paid officers in the state. Perhaps this is also one of the reasons for the heated debate. Could it also be that perhaps some of the citizens of Snoqualmie are tired of an overaggressive police force that is trying to justify their paychecks? I know I am and my tax dollars are paying for it!
By: Becky on July 17, 2006
at 11:13 pm