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Policy and practices
Our policy work involves reviewing potential policy changes by the Sheriff's Office and proposing our own changes based on extensive research and analysis. We also work closely with the King County Council and support advocacy efforts on the local and state levels.
About OLEO’s policy work
OLEO reviews and makes timely recommendations to the King County Sheriff regarding changes to the Sheriff's Office's internal policies, rules, procedures or general orders.
View the most recent version of the King County Sheriff's Office General Orders Manual (GOM).
The Sheriff’s Office is required to notify OLEO before implementing changes to all general orders, as well as policies and procedures relating to administrative investigations and reviews, unless urgent circumstances require the Sheriff's Office to act before contacting OLEO. OLEO prioritizes equity, reflecting community interests, legal standards, and law enforcement best practices when creating recommendations.
Policy review process: Community Guidance Framework
How the Framework was Created
OLEO develops policy recommendations in direct collaboration and consultation with community using our Community Guidance Framework (CGF).To develop the CGF, OLEO engaged with more than a dozen community-based organizations across the county between March and July of 2023. We prioritized outreach to communities disproportionately impacted by law enforcement practices, with a focus on Black, Brown, disabled, and immigrant communities.
Community engagement is central to OLEO’s work, and we would love to hear from you if you have ideas or want to get involved. This framework is a living document, and we invite residents of King County to connect with us if you’d like to get involved or share your feedback. You can reach us at OLEOpolicy@kingcounty.gov.
How the framework is used
OLEO partners with community-based organizations to implement and use our CGF. View or download the guide in English. We meet with organizations to learn more about their concerns and goals for policy reviews and then work together to create policy recommendations. This process can be a longer-term collaboration or a short-term consultation. OLEO is committed to making sure any interested community organizations can participate in creating policy and we are happy to address any accessibility needs.
This is a process open to all, and we are especially interested in organizations that further the interests of populations that have been historically marginalized or overpoliced. Interested? Please fill out this simple form and we will be in touch.
For copies of the CGF in additional languages, please refer to the documents linked below.
Policy recommendations
Find information about the policy recommendations OLEO has made to the King County Sheriff's Office.
Recent work
Recently, our Office shared a memo issuing a series of recommendations to the King County Sheriff’s Office regarding updates to its search warrant policies. The memo highlights both reissued and new recommendations based on OLEO's continuous review of the Sheriff's Office policies.
The policy team also published a report encouraging the Sheriff's Office to create a process to deliver trauma-informed notifications to next-of-kin following a critical incident. In the report, OLEO recommends that the King County Sheriff develop a policy on trauma-informed notification, partner with victim service organizations, and create a policy for communication with media outlets after a critical incident. The Sheriff's Office has not yet adopted any of the recommendations included in this report.