King County Sheriff use-of-force down 23% in 2021

Use-of-force incidents by King County Sheriff's deputies dropped by 23% between 2020 and 2021. There was an 88% decline in critical incidents (or only one in 2021 vs eight in 2020).

That's according to a new report just released by King County's Office of Law Enforcement Oversight.

The reports states that there were 150 reported incidents in 2021. That's 45 fewer than in 2020.

Researchers say the social justice protests of 2020, and police reforms that took effect last year, may have affected the numbers.

They also discovered approximately 29% of sworn deputies (or more than 200 workers) received one or more complaints. More than three quarters of those allegations ended with the deputy either being exonerated or the allegations against them deemed unfounded.

The Office of Law Enforcement Oversight made a number of recommendations, including calling on the department to lift its prohibition on randomly reviewing video from deputies' body-worn cameras. It also wants to limit deputies' ability to view recordings before interviews.