Kenmore police officers to stay in Kenmore

By Diane Hettrick

A previous article announced the closing of the Kenmore precinct of the King County Sheriff's Office as a measure to save $8 million over the next 20 years.

The Kenmore precinct is an old precinct which previously served all of unincorporated North King County, including Shoreline. When Shoreline incorporated, they contracted with the King County Sheriff's office (KCSO) for a Shoreline Police Department, to be supplied by KCSO. The City provides a station house, precinct (storefront) centers, and KCSO provides the police officers and all specialized departments such as major crimes, bank robbery, special assault.

As cities served by the Kenmore Precinct incorporated the unincorporated areas piece by piece, the areas served by the Kenmore precinct became more of a patchwork of separated areas. The City of Kenmore, when it incorporated, contracted with KCSO for a police department, which continued to be housed in the "Kenmore precinct" building.

Officers assigned to the remaining unincorporated areas start their patrol in their assigned areas, but go to the precinct in Kenmore to do their paperwork. This was an increasingly long and time-consuming commute as most of the unincorporated areas are in east King County.

The KCSO determined that the most effective location for unincorporated North King County patrols would be in Sammamish, and a station house is being remodeled there to house the officers.

Kenmore officers, that is those who are part of the contract police force for the City of Kenmore, will now be housed in the new Kenmore City Hall.

Until the new Sammamish station is open, Shoreline police will provide fingerprinting services and process the paperwork for weapons permits previously done at Kenmore.