Thurston County extends lateral‑hire incentives for sheriff's deputies; sheriff says laterals shorten training time and cut overtime costs

Thurston County commissioners voted June 17 to extend a pilot program that provides incentives to attract lateral deputy sheriffs and lateral corrections deputies from other law-enforcement agencies.

Human Resources Director Maria Ponte told the board the pilot had produced 59 qualified patrol applicants in the first outreach with 14 hires on the patrol side and 25 qualified correction applicants with two hires for corrections during the initial effort. Ponte said the program originally included hiring bonuses that will be removed for the extension; instead the sheriff’s office will focus on awarding 40 hours of vacation and 40 hours of sick leave to lateral candidates and awarding 40 hours of leave to current sheriff’s office employees who make successful referrals.

Sheriff Sanders described two main benefits of lateral hires: they substantially shorten the time new deputies take to reach fully independent duty and they reduce agency overtime and training costs. As he explained to the board, “a lateral basically saved about $63,000 in a rolling 12‑month period when you account for overtime, training, benefits,” and later added that since launching the incentive program his office had received lateral applicants from as far as Boston and Alaska. The sheriff also said the office had recently hired its “20 second lateral” during the current hiring wave.

County commissioners and staff discussed program metrics and follow-up. Commissioner Emily Klaus thanked staff and the sheriff’s team for responsive data and requested the county track whether leave hours awarded to lateral hires result in overtime backfill; she asked for even rough estimates to inform the board’s October review when the pilot will be revisited. In response, Sheriff Sanders and HR staff summarized historical hiring numbers for patrol: in 2023 the patrol hired 15 laterals; in 2024 the patrol hired 19 entry‑level deputies and 11 laterals; in 2025 to date staff reported 4 entry‑level hires and 7 laterals (the 2025 numbers were described as a partial update).

The board approved two resolutions extending the pilot through the fall and authorized continued work with unions to bargain the program’s impacts. County staff said no additional funding is requested for the extension; the revisions narrow incentives toward leave awards and referrals and provide time to study outcomes and bargaining impacts.

What’s next: Human Resources and the Sheriff’s Office will continue data collection, negotiate impacts with unions where required and review the pilot’s results in October 2025. Commissioners requested additional metrics tracking to show how awarded leave is used and whether it generates backfill overtime.