Derek Sanders has spent the last four years rebuilding the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office, and the community’s trust in the department, from the ground up.
“We have seen historic progress in Thurston County and at the sheriff's office,” Sanders said. “In the next four years, I'm really looking just to make it more efficient to really dial things down.”
Sanders served as a deputy with the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office for six years before he made his bid for public office in 2022. Before that, he served as a community service officer with the Lacey Police Department.
Sanders won out over then-longtime incumbent Thurston County Sheriff John Snaza in November 2022.
He immediately began working on fulfilling his campaign promises to improve transparency, accountability and recruiting and retention efforts.
Sanders also expressed desires to create domestic violence and homelessness teams, and set up a community advisory board.
He has achieved many of those initial campaign goals during his first term, and is asking voters to give him four more years to fulfill the rest.
“There's been some criticisms of, ‘well, you didn't get to this,’ and I'm like, ‘yeah, we've been a little busy,’” Sanders said.
Sanders’ first term as sheriff has been about solving the office’s immediate infrastructure and staffing crises, and beginning the work to restore community trust in the department.
The work Sanders has done over the last four years has created a “good stepping stone” for him to continue improving the sheriff’s office over the next four years
One of the first things to address in his second term is the Thurston County Jail, which is operating at half the capacity it was designed for, as the second phase of construction was never realized.
“It was completely cut in half in terms of actual space needs, and we're feeling that every day in terms of just the space requirements that we need for mentally ill and high violent offenders,” Sanders said.
He also hopes to continue improving recruiting and retention rates for the sheriff’s office.
“It would be cool one day to be fully staffed. I know that that's a really, really hard thing to do in law enforcement … but we've had some pretty big strides in retention,” Sanders said.
He is additionally still working to realize a promise from his first campaign — establishing a community advisory board.
“That's one way that we can kind of connect with the community and get feedback,” Sanders said.
Now that the sheriff’s office is moved into its new building, there are increased opportunities for community engagement in the form of events hosted at the space.
Those could include citizens academies, coloring competitions between local youth and law enforcement, and more.
While the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office’s budget is relatively stable compared to some other county departments, thanks to the Public Safety Sales Tax approved by voters in 2023, the county’s budget crisis continues to loom heavily over Sanders’ head.
“Long term, the piece that I'm really concerned about is the county being viewed as an unstable employer, and that affects every business department within Thurston County,” Sanders said. “If we start getting the reputation of, ‘oh well, we can't make the budget work, we constantly have to cut people, lay people off,’ recruiting and retention will be unattainable. No one will want to work here, and I don't blame them at that point.”
With so many counties across the state in similar budget situations, Sanders does not believe Thurston County’s budget woes are the fault of county officials.
“This is a systemic issue for counties, and the state needs to intervene and help out,” Sanders said. “They can do that by funding public defense. They can do that by continuing to offer incentives for law enforcement agencies to increase capacity. All these different things are on the table, but we really need some leadership at the state level to push it forward.”
Sanders prides himself on being an Independent candidate, despite the pushback from some members of the Democratic party who see him as more conservative than his opponent.
The opposite was true in his 2022 election bid against Snaza.
Sanders insists that he has stayed the same, demonstrating a consistent commitment to good police work in Thurston County.
“I feel like I've met expectations. I've done the things that I've been asked to do. I've turned around a failing police department. We did that. Response times are better. There are more deputies on the road. They're treating people with compassion and empathy, and when they're not, they're being held accountable,” Sanders said. “My job is to help deliver competent police services and set the tone for law enforcement in this county, and I think that record speaks for itself.”
For more information about Sanders’ campaign, visit https://www.sandersforsheriff.org/.
To learn more about Sanders’ opponent, Kevin Burton-Crow, visit https://www.burton-crowforsheriff.com/.
