Washington

Washington's 39 counties each elect a sheriff under RCW 36.28. Unlike California, Washington has no statewide statute mandating county-level civilian oversight; only King County has chartered such a body (the Office of Law Enforcement Oversight). The state operates centralized accountability through the Office of Independent Investigations (HB 1267, 2021) for use-of-force cases and the Criminal Justice Training Commission for officer certification and decertification.

Sheriff oversight

1/39 counties with a dedicated body 113 reports from those bodies

Other oversight

0 Civil Grand Jury reports 2 statewide oversight reports

Compare costs Compare Washington sheriff departments side by side

39 sheriffs named · of 39 counties

$1.62B total budget (latest per county)

Population, budget, $ per resident, staffing, and jail capacity across all 39 counties.

Data from CA State Controller's Office and CA State Sheriffs' Association.

State context

This section profiles all 39 Washington counties with the elected sheriff's name and whether the county operates its own jail. Staffing, budget, and facility-level capacity data are planned for a Phase 2 release once the Washington State Auditor's BARS extracts are integrated. See law.ungovr.org/oversight/wa for the state-level oversight architecture.

Counties

1 of 39 counties have a dedicated civilian sheriff oversight body. Highlighted rows have an established body. See methodology for scoring.

#	County	Status (date)	Started (date)	LE capability	Independence
01	King	Active 20 years	2006	21/40	65/100

No record found · 38 counties

Adams
Asotin
Benton
Chelan
Clallam
Clark
Columbia
Cowlitz
Douglas
Ferry
Franklin
Garfield
Grant
Grays Harbor
Island
Jefferson
Kitsap
Kittitas
Klickitat
Lewis
Lincoln
Mason
Okanogan
Pacific
Pend Oreille
Pierce
San Juan
Skagit
Skamania
Snohomish
Spokane
Stevens
Thurston
Wahkiakum
Walla Walla
Whatcom
Whitman
Yakima