The King County Sheriff’s Office has an expansive contracting model with over a dozen cities receiving policing services through interlocal agreements. Cheol Kang, the office’s chief of the community programs and services division, said there are alluring cost-cutting measures for smaller cities. Rather than pouring resources and staff time into training, recruitment and discipline, cities can pay for, essentially, the “service delivery of a fully commissioned … deputy to serve in their community.” Those deputies work in the community day-to-day, too, he said.
Contracting out policing services has not been without snags. In Burien, for instance, the city and Sheriff’s Office have gotten into dramatic legal and political battle over the Sheriff’s Office’s refusal to enforce a camping ban.
If you only think in the cost for officers, the cost stays the same or possibly even increases.
However, this allows you to lay off several administrative employees since their duties would be handled by the larger office.
Finally, if there is a complaint against the police department since the city no longer runs the police department the larger Police department would have to field those complaints and possibly be on the hook for whatever lawsuit and damages occur from bad policing, which can save the city millions of dollars a year.
Who do you think is going to eat the cost of lawsuits?
The city that runs the police force.
In this case it would be Seattle