Sheriff’s office leaders updated the commissioners on hiring, jail population, staffing and recent incidents.

The jail had 19 custody staff and three community service officers on staff at the time of the briefing, leaving nine vacancies. The sheriff said three employees were scheduled to start on the 16th, three candidates were in background checks, and four interviews were set for later in the week. The jail population was 57, with five inmates held at Nisqually. Between Aug. 24 and Sept. 6 the jail recorded roughly 50 bookings.

The sheriff described a recent shakedown in which staff found a sharpened piece of metal that had been removed from a medical brace and fashioned into a weapon; the sheriff said the agency identified the source and filed charges for possessing a weapon in the facility. He explained that medical devices are inspected on intake and that staff remove unsafe components when appropriate.

The office said its litter‑crew program picked up a substantial amount of trash countywide in August (staff cited “over 100,000 pounds” and approximately 40 miles of roadway covered). Patrol staffing improvements included four upcoming swears‑ins and several officers in training or background screening; the sheriff said four positions in patrol were open but that the department had multiple candidates in the pipeline. The sheriff also noted the SET (Special Enforcement Team) will have additional personnel by the end of the month to support proactive enforcement and nuisance removal work.

The briefing included updates on felony investigations, Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) activity and mutual aid calls for an off‑county jail death investigation; no formal board action was recorded at the briefing.