Committee hears update on school lockdowns and a residents report of suspected child trafficking downtown

Committee members asked about recent school lockdowns in Forks and the countys response plan during the May 28 meeting. Sheriff Brian King said most recent threats were noncredible but alarming and described steps the office is taking with the school district.

"If Forks High School goes into lockdown... the minute they do activation of lockdown... itll also go to class immediately," the sheriff said, describing a new EC3 app the office plans to use to push notifications to phones and provide classroom roll-call mapping for officers and teachers.

The committee also heard a report from a member who relayed that a resident observed two street incidents downtown that the resident interpreted as possible child‑trafficking signals. The committee member described the behavior and locations and asked whether outreach or hotlines exist.

Sheriff King said the department conducts trafficking outreach and sometimes uses proactive online operations; he suggested calling 911 for immediate concerns and offered to provide trafficking hotlines and courthouse signage with contact information. "You can call 911... and it starts with, okay, a welfare check," he said.

The committee did not take formal action on the trafficking allegation; the sheriff offered to share hotline numbers and existing outreach measures and emphasized the difficulty of finding victims and the need for interagency cooperation on trafficking cases that may cross state lines.

The meeting ended after scheduling the next committee meeting for Sept. 24.