Suquamish Police: Training That Matters

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Suquamish Police attending the Shop with a Cop event in Poulsbo, WA.

Did you know that Suquamish Police Officers get over 400%  more training each year than the State of Washington requires? Or, that we have the toughest ongoing fitness requirements for Patrol Officers in the United States?

Today, training is incredibly relevant to Law Enforcement.  The most important areas of training are topics which are called “High Risk/ Low Frequency” events. Those are things that don’t happen often, but that are dangerous or life-and-death when they do occur, such as armed robberies and performing CPR. If we do something every day, like traffic stops, we get pretty good at them. If we only do something once every 2 or 3 years, then we don’t get much practice, so we need to train to maintain the skill.

Many tasks performed by police officers have a “physical skill” element. If we think of our children’s sports teams, we see the best model for developing physical skills; regular practice. Imagine If you sent your child to participate in a sport, and the coach said “OK, we’re going to have one practice next Friday for 8 hours, and then we won’t practice again for 5 months, when we will play for the championship!” All of our eyebrows would go up; we know that our team wouldn’t perform well if they hadn’t worked together as a team for 5 months, or developed our basic skills and abilities. Part of practicing is learning to deal with the time-pressure and split second decision making in practice, so we make good decisions during the game. Police work is no different.

What kind of basic training do police officers receive? Well, first they are screened. All officers who work for the Suquamish Police Department meet the same standards as any other officer in Washington State. They have all passed a Physical Fitness Test, a polygraph examination, a psychological examination by a psychiatrist, a criminal records check, a detailed background investigation, drug testing, a written test and multiple selection boards; one with police officers from Suquamish and neighboring communities, and a second with Council members, elders, youth and community representatives.

Then, those who qualify are sent to a basic academy. In Suquamish, we use both State and Federal Academies depending on where there are vacancies. The Federal Academy is about 660 hours long, and the State Academy is 720. If we send an officer to the Federal Academy at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), they are also sent to a State Equivalency Academy for an additional 80 hours, receiving a total of 800 Academic training hours.

After completing the Academy, they return to participate in Field Training with a Field Training Officer (FTO). This program is an additional 4 months working under the supervision of a senior officer, learning the community, geography, and specific laws, policies, report writing systems and of the things that are specific to Suquamish.  The FTO completes a daily scoring sheet on the officer, and they immediately correct any mistakes. This training would also include spending time with Detectives, Fisheries Officers, at CENCOM/ 911 and with neighboring agencies. By the time the officer is ready to work alone without supervision, they have been training for the better part of a year.

After completing their basic training, officers must receive continuous in-service training to maintain their skills. The Standard required by the State of Washington is 24 hours of “In-Service” training per year, to maintain police certification.  Testing and Qualification courses do NOT count towards this training time; testing is separate.  One of the advantages of being a Sovereign Government is that the Tribe has the ability to set its own standards.  The Suquamish Tribe exercises its Sovereignty by requiring it’s police to meet a higher standard than the State of Washington. We require each officer to meet a minimum of 40 hours of training per year, rather than the 24 required by the State. That is our minimum, but we never strive to meet the minimum.  In 2016, our average training hours per officer was 108.2 hours. This is 400% more than the State of Washington requires, and 250% above our own higher standard.  Some in-service training topics include handcuffing, legal updates (Federal, State and Tribal), emergency vehicle operation, communication skills, policies & procedures, investigations, patrol procedures, DUI and drug impaired drivers, domestic violence updates, ethics, crisis intervention & mental health, narcotics investigations and many others.

In 2016, we also hosted 2 different 40-hour conferences for all of the Law Enforcement agencies in our region.  One was on “Crisis Intervention Training”, which gives police officers up to date detailed information on the best ways to interact with people who are suffering from mental health challenges.  The other was “Transformative Use of Force Practices for Supervisors and Trainers”, which focused on the most current best practices in the area of police use of force.  It was taught by folks who are involved in the development and restructuring of the Seattle Police use of force training, to ensure it meets the constitutional demands and civil rights standards of the modern era.

Every Trimester, the officers are required to pass a fitness test to ensure they are maintaining a condition of readiness to respond to emergencies. The test may be the State standard of a 300 meter sprint, 1.5 mile run and sit-up and push-ups, but we also vary the tests to keep them interesting, and ensure that our officers don’t become injured by over-training in the same events all of the time. Much of our fitness training is geared towards maintaining mobility, and “injury-proofing” our officers.  We also develop practical skills like pushing, carrying and dragging heavy objects, so that we can pull folks out of burning cars or houses (which we’ve done).  Fit officers handle stress better, and make better decisions under pressure. No other agency in the State of Washington conducts mandatory fitness testing each Trimester. Most departments do nothing, and a few test once a year, but passing the test is usually not required. Some give financial incentives to officers who stay fit; we feel it’s already a basic part of the job. Our position is that you pay for police officers who are able to respond and assist you in an emergency, and you deserve to have officers who are trained and prepared to do so. The officers are given on-duty time to maintain their fitness levels.

If you have any questions regarding law enforcement training, please feel free to contact me!

Ocean to Table

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Ocean to Table is a program at Chief Kitsap Academy designed to give students a hands-on learning experience that incorporates science and culture by taking them on the journey that fish make, from the ocean to their dinner tables.

Suquamish Fisheries Director Rob Purser shows Chief Kitsap Academy Students how to maintain salmon fishing nets.

Suquamish Fisheries Director Rob Purser shows Chief Kitsap Academy Students how to maintain salmon fishing nets.

 by Karen Matsumoto

One very cold mid-November morning students in the marine biology class at Chief Kitsap Academy found themselves out on Dyes Inlet learning how to catch chum salmon.  Jay Mills, his brother David, and Rob Purser provided the boats, equipment, and expertise, and generously gave their whole day to provide the first stage of a “start-to-finish” chum salmon fishing project. Students were prepared through classroom activities about outfitting a fishing boat.  Boots and raingear provided by the school and loaned by the Tribal Fisheries Department, so students were ready to brave the cold and participate in a day of hard work on a gillnetter. The project ended days later with delicious salmon that was smoked, canned, and ready to eat.

This innovative activity was the brainchild of Tribal Councilmember and Kiana Lodge manager Jay Mills and Randi Purser, language and cultural teacher at CKA. They realized that although just about everybody loves smoked salmon, most students had no idea of the energy, patience, and effort it takes to produce one jar of smoked salmon.

The project was incorporated into the salmon unit of the CKA marine biology curriculum by Marine Biology teacher, Karen Matsumoto.  Students learned about chum salmon life history early in the school year, and conducted macroinvertebrate sampling at Cowling Creek with Paul Dorn, Suquamish Fisheries biologist, and with biologists from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Kitsap County.  Students also conducted stream habitat investigations, monitoring water chemistry and stream health.  In late October, they saw chum salmon swimming upriver to spawn on Suquamish tribal lands for the first time in almost 100 years, thanks to the new fish ladder built by Trout Unlimited volunteers.

There was a field trip to the Grover Creek hatchery and classroom dissection activities. After investigating the internal anatomy of salmon, students practiced filleting the fish, an essential step in preparing them for smoking.

The November day on David’s and Jay’s boats included setting and pulling nets, disentangling salmon caught in the nets, and dealing with the unusual numbers of sea jellies encountered in Chico Bay.  Over 50 salmon were caught that day and by the end of the afternoon, the students were throwing fish like Pike Place Market fish vendors!  They helped pack the fish for processing and met at the Community House the salmon the following day to continue their work.  Jay Mills taught students how to clean and prepare fish for smoking, using his grandmother’s trick of placing the salmon on a bed of ferns to hold the fish in place and absorb the blood.  It was an all day effort to clean and process the fish, ending with the salmon fillets carefully packed with salt and sent to the smoker!

Students helped tend the fire in the smoker, and learned about the smoking process.  When the fish was ready, we met Jay at the Kiana Lodge kitchen for canning.  About half the fish was smoked, resulting in seven cases of pint jars of first-rate salmon.  The flavor was heavenly! These jars will be used as gifts to honor speakers and elders who come to the school and some may be sold for a school fundraiser.

Inspired by the success of this venture, Karen and Jay are developing a chum salmon fishing curriculum, so the program can be streamlined and duplicated every year.  This intensive project, extending over three weeks, was well worth the time and effort. Students gained hands-on experience in the Tribe’s local chum fishery, learned how to process and preserve salmon, and gained another important connection with their Tribal heritage.

Culvert Removal on Chico Creek

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Ostrom Chico Creek

Tom Ostrom was the lead on the project for the Suquamish Tribe. He is pictured here, in front of the culvert, before its’ removal last summer.

Kitty Hawk Drive, just off Chico Way between Silverdale and Bremerton, WA was filled with work trucks and men in hard hats last summer. The relatively small, inconspicuous roadway was home to a stream culvert that was removed, thanks to the Suquamish Tribe’s cooperative efforts with local, state and federal officials.

Members of the Suquamish Tribe along with representatives from State, County and Federal regulatory agencies broke ground on the project on June 17, 2014.  Workers finished replacing the culvert with a bridge fall 2014, just in time for the early winter salmon runs in October and November.

Culverts are large cement tunnels that carry streams under roadways. The structures, used throughout the northwest during the last half of the twentieth century, create significantly faster running waterways that impede fish passage and damage creek beds.

Over the past several years the Suquamish Tribe has worked with government agencies and other organizations to remove the 40-foot culvert at Kitty Hawk Drive. The goal is to remove the even larger 400-foot culvert upstream under State Route 3 as well, resulting in a much healthier estuary at the mouth of Chico Creek.

Tom Ostrom, Salmon Recovery Coordinator in the Fisheries Department at the Suquamish Tribe, has been the lead on the project.

“The Washington State Department of Transportation has ranked the State Route 3 culvert as the second highest priority for replacement in the entire Olympia Region. Removing Kitty Hawk Drive from the historic Chico estuary is a necessary first step allowing for the future replacement of the State Route 3 culvert,” said Ostrom.
The Chico estuary is a diverse mix of habitats including stream and nearshore riparian, salt marsh, tidal distributary channels, and inter-tidal gravel beach. The Suquamish Tribe has documented juveniles of 5 species of Pacific salmon (including listed Chinook salmon and steelhead) rearing within the Chico estuary. In the early 1960s, the State Highway Department built State Route 3 and Kitty Hawk Drive on fill as deep as 50 feet, resulting in the loss of approximately 5 acres of channel, floodplain, and saltmarsh in the Chico Estuary.

Naloxone Saves Lives

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Narcan

Naloxone, also known as Narcan, can save the life of a person who has overdosed on heroin.

Opioid overdose has become a leading cause of accidental death in Washington State.  Prescription opioid involved overdose deaths increased from 0.4 per 100,000 in 1995 to 7.4 per 100,000 in 2008. The rate dropped to 6.0 per 100,000 in 2010. The three opioids most often involved in overdose deaths are methadone, oxycodone and hydrocodone. Methadone has been involved in the majority of the deaths. States with higher sales of prescription opioids have higher rates of overdose deaths.  Fatal and nonfatal overdose can result from the ingestion of opioids such as morphine, methadone, heroin, fentanyl, oxycodone as found in OxyContin®, Percocet® and Percodan®, and hydrocodone as found in Vicodin®.  Heroin in Washington State varies in purity from 3.5% to 55% active ingredients; the users have no way of knowing the source or purity of the drug from one purchase to the next.

Naloxone, commonly known by the brand-name Narcan®, is an opioid antagonist which displaces the opioid from receptors in the brain and can therefore reverse an opioid overdose.  It is not a scheduled drug and it has no euphoric properties and minimal side effects. If it is administered to a person who is not suffering an opioid overdose, it will do no harm.  Naloxone has been available as an injectable since the 1960s, but was recently developed as a nasal spray.

To reduce the number of fatalities which can result from opioid overdoses, the Suquamish Police Department will train its officers in the proper first responder administration of nasal naloxone.  (No needles, just a nasal spray, kind of like afrin or other nasal medications)  In order to implement a safe and responsible nasal naloxone plan, the Department will establish and maintain a professional affiliation with a Medical Physician who will provide medical oversight for Departmental training and policy relating to the use of nasal naloxone. The Medical Physician shall be licensed to practice medicine within Washington State. At his or her discretion, he or she may make recommendations regarding the policy, oversight, and administration of the nasal naloxone program developed and implemented by the Department.

Our preference when someone is experiencing an overdose is to secure the scene, get the medics in there and transport the person to a hospital.  Sometimes, people use heroin or other opioids in rural or “out of the way places” to avoid detection, making it hard for a large fire truck to reach them.  In some cases the scene is dangerous, and the fire department won’t respond until those dangers have been dealt with.  Nasal Naloxone will buy time for the person until we can get them the help they need.  It also makes it easier on the officers; if you’ve ever performed CPR for a length of time, it can be exhausting work.  Naloxone allows us to quickly assist a patient in extreme distress, and restore the vital functions of their body until they can get advanced help.

Some people worry that having access to these emergency antidotes encourages drug use.  Research studies have investigated this common concern and found that making naloxone available does not encourage people to use opiates more.  The goal of distributing naloxone and educating people about how to prevent, recognize and intervene in overdoses is to prevent deaths.  Other goals, such as decreasing drug use, can only be accomplished if the user is alive.  As Law Enforcement, we’re in the life saving business.  A person can’t go to treatment if they die from a drug overdose.

Other people are afraid that if they call 911 to report someone overdosing, they’ll get in trouble.  While each situation is different, I can assure you that you’re far more likely to get in trouble if you don’t call 911, and someone dies.  Washington State has even passed a law to assure people wouldn’t get in trouble for calling 911 to get someone help; here is the link:  http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=69.50.315

The Tribe is still considering its full spectrum of options regarding how to deal with all of the legal and social issues involved, but the common practice of the Suquamish Police is to not target people who make a call that saves a life.  Making the call won’t forgive every illegal thing you’ve ever done, but we’ll give you quite a bit of consideration for doing the right thing.

If you’d like more information on these topics, a good resource is www.stopoverdose.org