King County Sheriff Sue Rahr spoke at Maple Valley Library last Thursday in another of a series of public forums on proposed budget cuts that she and other county officials say will hurt law enforcement.

Rahr, Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, Superior Court Presiding Judge Bruce Hilyer, and District Court Presiding Judge Barbara Linde have been outspoken in recent weeks about deep cuts in spending that County Executive Ron Sims has warned are being considered for next year. The four elected leaders of the countywide criminal justice have said the public’s safety would be jeopardized by the millions of dollars of budget reductions for 2009.

The forum last week in Maple Valley, coming a day after Rahr pleaded her case at a County Council committee meeting, followed similar sessions earlier in the month on Vashon Island and in Seatac and Fall City. More of the meetings will be announced for later this year, officials said.

The Sheriff Department released the text of comments Rahr made at the council committee meeting last Wednesday:

“As I describe these impacts of the 2009 target reductions, it’s important that the council have a clear picture of how the landscape has changed year since they passed the 2008 budget.

“The executive’s budget office cut six deputies and a supervisor from the sheriff’s office budget in response to the Lea Hill annexation (by the city of Auburn) last year. After listening to my presentation about how those cuts would impact the surrounding neighborhoods, the County Council restored those positions and placed the funding into reserve.

“The council also approved $755,000 to complete the implementation of the Blue Ribbon Panel recommendations, which included several key positions for managing personnel and accountability and a training budget that was in line with an organization of our size. The council also placed that funding in reserve. The budget director has made it very clear to me those funds will not be released and the money will not be in my budget for 2008 as intended by the council.

“In total, I’ve been directed to cut 21 positions already this year. Only nine of those can be attributed to workload reductions. In order to preserve the safety of my deputies and maintain our response time to emergency calls, I’ve made cuts from other areas of the sheriff’s office that have no relation whatsoever to annexations (by cities). The total value of the 2008 reductions to the sheriff’s office is nearly $2.5 million.

“With the current situation in mind, I’d like to now describe the impact of the 2009 target reduction of $7.5 million. As you know, 85 percent of my budget is dedicated to salaries and benefits and approximately 12 percent pays the internal rates charged to (the Sheriff Department) by other county departments. That leaves 3% to pay for everything else, from training 1100 employees to doing community outreach and volunteer recruitment. The bottom line: My target reduction can only realistically be achieved by cutting a lot of cops.

“In 2009, I will maintain an adequate number of deputies in reactive patrol to respond to 9-1-1 calls for help. This is and will continue to be my number one priority. I will instead look for areas that won’t create an immediate and direct threat to the personal safety of our citizens. I’ll focus on reducing our services devoted to property crimes, re-prioritize how we address all other investigations and continue to look for other ways to restructure and reduce administrative costs.

“I’m looking at cutting detectives who investigate property crimes, fraud, and identity theft with losses under $10,000. That means if your house gets broken into, I’ll send a deputy to document your loss, but the case won’t be investigated any further. If you are a business owner victimized by check fraud, we’ll give you a case number to report to your insurance company.

“I’m looking at cutting cold-case investigations. We currently have 150-plus unsolved homicides in King County that won’t have any further followup by detectives.

When asked by the council about steps to save money, Rahr said:

• All divisions have been directed to reduce overtime use by 15 percent, which means deputies won’t be held over at the end of their shifts to answer 9-1-1 calls unless there is a life-threatening emergency

• “We are exploring the potential of not calling as many resources to investigate crime scenes or manage emergency tactical situations.”

• Personnel have been told to buy gas for police vehicles where it’s cheapest.

• “We’re developing an online reporting option” so that citizens can report crimes “without having to wait for a deputy to respond to their home to take a report.”