The Mason County Sheriff’s Office told county commissioners Tuesday that jail and patrol staffing are improving but that detectives and patrol remain stretched by an increase in serious calls and investigative demands.

Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said the department currently has “8 open positions in the jail. We currently have 6 of those are in background, and 2 of those 6 are conditional offers.” The spokesperson added patrol has “3 open positions with a couple in the background right now.”

The office said its civil division is fully staffed “for the first time in ever” and functioning well. The briefing also described an expansion of the county’s DARE program: “We have right now our first class, we had 55 graduates at Pioneer,” the spokesperson said, and the office plans classes next year at two smaller schools, Great View and Southside. The office named Nicholas Monteo as its newest DARE officer.

Staff reported the jail population as of the briefing at 68 in custody, plus 4 housed in Nisqually, and said the jail took in 12 people over the preceding weekend. The office warned that processing the weekend arrests will “create an impact on them today for the processing in court.”

Investigations and major incidents were a central focus. The office referenced multiple homicides this year, including “the one with the infant child,” and a recent homicide tied to a suspect earlier detained on a bridge. Patrol also handled an armed-robbery/shots-fired incident that led to a SWAT warrant service; the suspect was arrested and the sheriff’s office said officers recovered about 30 firearms.

The office cautioned that firearms intake is creating evidence-storage challenges: “We are getting very, very full in our evidence system with firearms…we have to treat firearms differently than we do regular evidence…we're getting to a point where we're getting, full. We're gonna have to figure out what to do with that,” the spokesperson said.

Other operational items included a large wildfire in the county (the spokesperson described it as about 8,400 acres), and an equipment failure when a patrol aluminum boat sank while staged at a lake for fire response; the boat was recovered and will be inspected by a vendor. The office also said it led the Region 3 critical-incident investigative team for a recent shooting in Lewis County and described a recent surge of ICAC (Internet Crimes Against Children) investigations that required search warrants and arrests.

On longer-term issues, staff said an 8-page addendum to a comprehensive jail study — an outsourcing-cost analysis requested by the commission — was recently delivered and will be brought back to the commission for discussion. Staff also reported that a contractor, Macecom, has proposed a significant budget increase for services; the minimum increase noted was about $70,000 and the worst-case figure mentioned was about $400,000, and the contractor was asked to revisit options.

Commissioners and staff discussed neighborhood-watch outreach and a recent distribution of steering-wheel locks for neighborhood-watch captains. Commissioners suggested more frequent briefings from the sheriff’s office; the sheriff’s staff proposed a recurring check-in, with one commissioner saying twice a month would be acceptable.

No formal motions or votes were made during the briefing; commissioners asked for follow-up items and further briefings on the jail-study addendum, the Macecom budget request and evidence-storage options.

Ending: The sheriff’s team returned to the briefing room after questions and said they will continue to coordinate with the commission as those operational and budget items are developed further.