In an exclusive interview with Breitbart Texas, Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank, an elected official who represents nearly one million residents, says he is “standing in the breach” to protect the will of his voters from Senate Bill 5974. If passed, the exclusively Democrat-sponsored bill would subject elected sheriffs to a state suitability investigation, including a review of social media activity, that could result in their removal from office by unelected state officials.
On Monday, Breitbart Texas spoke at length with Swank, who leads his department in Tacoma, the county seat. Swank says if this bill becomes law, it would be a quick way for those who do not agree with his public stance on several issues to immediately remove him despite his appeal to voters in his county.
A controversial provision in the bill requires every sheriff or candidate for the position of county sheriff to consent to and facilitate the review of all social media accounts. If any information gathered during the background review, including questionable social media content, results in an unsuitable determination, the bill will allow the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission (CTJC), an unelected oversight board, to rule a candidate ineligible to run for the office of sheriff within a county. The office of a sitting sheriff who fails the review would be decertified as a peace officer, and their office would be considered vacant.
Swank is facing backlash and possible removal from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) for speaking out against the bill in testimony before a state Senate committee, in what the group deemed inflammatory speech. In a letter sent to all members of the organization, attributed to Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels and WASPC Executive Director Steven D. Strachan, the group will initiate proceedings to consider expelling Swank from the organization.
Swank told Breitbart Texas he worries more about protecting voters’ rights in his county and state than about membership in an organization. The group has all but surrendered to the Democrats in hopes of having input on the final version of the bill. “They don’t see the danger in making a deal with the devil,” Swank emphasized.
Swank, a former SWAT team commander responsible for clearing and securing the unlawful CHOP/CHAZ zone during the 2020 Seattle riots did not mince words in his statement to the Democratic controlled state senate committee. His statement reads as follows:
In the interest of time, I’ll skip the fake pleasantries and get right to it. Elections have consequences, and I acknowledge that. Democrats have a super majority in the house, the senate, governor, and every statewide executive office. You have it all except the office of sheriff, and once you have control over sheriffs you think you can impose your will on people like me. Some of my colleagues naively believe that they can come here and reason with you. They think you don’t understand what’s at stake here. They don’t understand you like I do. You know what is at stake, and you are acting on it. You are not dumb, you are evil.
But I am not surprised. You are going to pass this qualifications bill for law enforcement, but you will not hold yourselves accountable. You say, “We have to hold the chiefs and sheriffs accountable because they enforce the law.” That’s just the excuse you use for the low-information people that vote for you.
If you really wanted accountability, you would have qualifications for anyone who runs for office. You write the laws that we enforce so why should you not have the same qualifications? I propose that everyone who runs for an elected office go through a b
A controversial provision in the bill requires every sheriff or candidate for the position of county sheriff to consent and facilitate the review of all social media accounts. If any information gathered during the background review, including questionable social media content, results in unsuitable determination, the bill will allow Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission (CTJC), an unelected oversight board, to rule a candidate ineligible to run for the office of sheriff within a county. The office of a sitting sheriff who fails the review would be decertified as a peace officer and their office would be considered vacant.
Swank is facing backlash and possible removal from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) for speaking out against the bill in testimony before a state Senate committee in what the group deemed inflammatory speech. In a letter sent to alackground check, a social media review, a polygraph, and a psychological test. Democrats won’t agree to that because you have convicted felons who are elected officials, and you want more.
I represent almost one million people in Pierce County, many more people than any of you do. I wasn’t elected chief of police. Being sheriff of Pierce County is much more than just police work. Citizens reach out to me all the time regarding overreach of the government by you. Some say they finally have a voice because of me, and you want to silence my voice. If I towed the Democrat line, you would not have any issue with me, but since I know what a woman is and I know transgender women are men, you want me silenced.
You want to give an un-elected bureaucracy the ability to de-certify me and remove me from office because you don’t agree with my speech. You Democrats hate President Trump so much, yet you do the very things you accuse him of doing such as imposing these types of controls over other independently elected officials.
Also, just for the record, my deputies don’t wear face masks, but once you pass the law that they can’t, I will not only allow them, but I will also encourage them to do so. I don’t recognize your authority to impose these controls over me, and when you try to remove me from office before my term expires, thousands of Pierce County residents will surround the County City Building in downtown Tacoma and not allow that to happen.
I hope it doesn’t come to that, but I and they are prepared. Are you prepared? Finally, anyone who votes for this will never have an audience with this sheriff.
Sheriff Swank told Breitbart Texas that his January 15th statement to the legislature has received tremendous support from his constituents, and he continues to stand behind his testimony. “I made my statement public, and up to now, more than 4 million people have viewed it. The responses are overwhelmingly in support of my opposition to the bill,” Swank emphasized.
Sheriff Swank told Breitbart Texas he finds it ironic that Democrats who control both bodies of the state legislature, who say there should be no “Kings” in government, now want to strip away the power of voters in their state and hand it to an unelected commission. “It’s ironic, but it goes deeper than that as well,” Swank told Breitbart Texas. “Right now, Democrats have an incredible amount of control with a 60 percent majority in both bodies of the legislature. At 67 percent, they will be able to change the state’s constitution at will and get rid of elected officials like me that don’t agree with them,” Swank added.
The latest Senate bill drawing rebuke from Swank is but one of several battles Swank is fighting in the overwhelmingly liberal state of Washington. Sheriff Swank is leading an effort to seek judicial review of the state’s sanctuary law, known as the Keep Washington Working Act, which prohibits state and local law enforcement officers from cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Swank says he hopes a decision is rendered soon by the Supreme Court on challenges to state sanctuary laws like Washington’s that he referred to as the “Keep Illegal Aliens in our Communities Act.” Sheriff Swank says his department will fully comply with the sanctuary law, as its penalty provisions are aimed at individual law enforcement officers, and he will not suggest or promote any deviation from the law as it stands. Swank told Breitbart Texas he will make sure none of his deputies are impacted negatively by noncompliance, saying, “I’m not going to place any of our officers in jeopardy; we will continue to comply unless the Supreme Court overturns the sanctuary law.”
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Before his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on X @RandyClarkBBTX.
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