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Spokane County sheriff requests opioid-settlement funds to add detective to Raven task force
Summary
Sheriff's office told commissioners its locally run Raven task force has declined from about 14 investigators to 6.5 and asked the board to use opioid-settlement dollars to fund one full-time detective to restore capacity. Commissioners directed staff to draft a resolution for consideration.
Spokane County Sheriff27s Office briefed the Board of County Commissioners on staffing losses and an immediate request to use opioid-settlement funds to add a detective to the Raven task force, a locally run enforcement unit that investigates mid- and upper-level drug trafficking and gang activity.
Sheriff representatives told commissioners Raven has dropped from roughly 14 full-time investigators a decade ago to about 6.5 currently, after multiple city-assigned officers accepted early buyouts and were not replaced. "Raven is our only locally staffed drug investigative unit in Spokane County equipped to do the kind of work that they're doing," a Raven task force representative said, adding the unit's capacity to mount large controlled operations and federal-scale cases is limited by current staffing.
The sheriff's office outlined a one-time personnel cost estimate: total compensation per detective (wages, benefits and overtime) of about $188,000. Staff said some of the $200,000 in opioid-settlement funds already provided to the sheriff for a drug analyst could be repurposed to offset part of the detective27s cost, reducing the incremental ask to an estimated roughly $150,000. County staff and the sheriff said the Spokane Valley contract will add one full-time FTE to Raven and the county27s contribution would make the task force more operationally balanced.
County finance staff and an opioid-program staff member told commissioners the county currently projects roughly $1.7 million in unallocated opioid-settlement funds available for future obligations spread over the coming years. Justin (county staff member) told the commission the 1 Washington memorandum of understanding does not restrict using opioid-settlement dollars for law enforcement projects so long as the use addresses fentanyl or related opioid prevention or mitigation goals, but cautioned that the federal guidance flags unrestricted law-enforcement spending as an area of attention.
Commissioners expressed support for adding an investigator as a one-time use of opioid-settlement funds and asked that the sheriff27s office and county staff prepare a resolution and timeline. "This is a position we can fill immediately," a sheriff representative said. The sheriff said he would draft a resolution to allocate the funds for the board to consider on a future legislative agenda.
Next steps: county staff will prepare a draft resolution to allocate opioid-settlement funds to the Raven task force detective position and place it on a legislative agenda for the commissioners27 vote. Commissioners asked staff to confirm final cost estimates and the allowable uses of opioid-settlement funds before finalizing the resolution.
