NPA Report with Guest, Keith Swank, Career Law Enforcement Officer and Sheriff of Pierce County, WA
In this episode of the National Police Association Podcast, Sergeant Betsy Brantner Smith sits down with Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank, a constitutional sheriff who has emerged as a national voice for courageous law-enforcement leadership in the face of unprecedented political pressure. Sheriff Swank explains how Washington State’s “sanctuary” laws and legislative overreach threaten not only public safety, but the very independence of the elected sheriff’s office. Drawing on his career with the Seattle Police Department and his historic election as Pierce County’s first sheriff elected from outside the sheriff’s office, Swank details the growing effort by state lawmakers to “modernize” policing by imposing political control over who may run for sheriff and even removing sitting sheriffs who dissent. The conversation also explores why cooperation with ICE increases safety for officers, detainees, and the public; how riots, CHAZ/CHOP, and political interference reshaped policing in Seattle; and why sheriffs are uniquely accountable to the people, not politicians. Above all, this episode is a candid look at what it means to stand firm under fire, speak truth in hostile environments, and lead with courage when silence would be easier.
🗂️ Topics Covered
- What makes the sheriff’s office constitutionally independent
- Pierce County’s charter government and its limits on sheriffs
- Washington State’s “Keep Washington Working” Act and sanctuary policies
- Why ICE cooperation improves public safety—and why it’s prohibited in Washington
- Legislative efforts to politically “qualify” or decertify elected sheriffs
- The danger of allowing bureaucracies to remove sheriffs for speech
- Riot control lessons from Seattle, CHAZ/CHOP, and the “Summer of Love”
- The difference between appointed police chiefs and elected sheriffs
- National implications for sheriffs in blue states
- The personal toll of standing up and why it’s still worth it
