Orting police chief says staffing shortfall has left officers frequently working alone; recommends adding five officers

Chief Ruck told the Orting City Council on Jan. 15 that the police department’s staffing has not kept pace with two decades of population growth and recommended the city staff toward 16 full‑time officers to ensure two officers are on duty at all times. The study compared Orting’s staffing ratios to FBI employment data and to similar Washington cities and found Orting well below the per‑capita averages for jurisdictions of comparable size.

The presentation, delivered to the council during a public safety committee item, stressed the workload consequences of low staffing. “When an officer is working alone, that workload, significantly, if not, you know, has doubled or or more because they’re having to do all that work,” Chief Ruck said. He told the council that, even accounting for recent authorized positions, Orting’s officer‑per‑1,000 rate would remain materially below the national average of 2.4 officers per 1,000 residents published by the FBI…