The sheriff of Pierce County spoke about the controversy that his recent social media activity is creating.

Pierce County

Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank is facing scrutiny after complaints were filed with the state's Criminal Justice Training Commission regarding his social media posts. The complaints reference posts deemed biased and unprofessional, including remarks about transgender individuals and political issues. The Commission has not yet assigned investigators, and the process is in its early stages.

Sheriff Swank maintains that his posts are personal and intended to spark community discussion, emphasizing his right to free speech as an elected official. If the Commission finds grounds for action, Swank could lose his law enforcement certification, though state law regarding the status of an elected sheriff in such circumstances remains unclear. The situation is ongoing, with no formal investigation initiated at this stage.

Pierce County Sheriff talks about controversial social media posts

Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank who is known for his divisive online presence has now caught the eye of a state agency. Several complaints have been filed against Swank with the state's Criminal Justice Training Commission. Fox 13's AJ Janneville digs into what that means for the sheriff and how he is responding. You hear people say that they believe in freedom of speech but actually they don't because they want my speech to be dampened. Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank is under fire. The state's Criminal Justice Training Commission tells Fox 13 two complaints have been filed against him and a third case is opened regarding Swank's time at the Seattle Police Department where according to documents we obtained the Office of Police Accountability found Swank made several biased and unprofessional social media posts in 2023 including a tweet that read trans women are men and Democrats have made their agenda clear they want to kill babies in all 50 states. The Criminal Justice Training Commission has the ability to determine what I write if it's hate speech and then they can decertify me and then make it so I'm not a cop anymore. I completely disagree with that for cops but I also I specifically disagree with it for me being an elected official. They should not have any right to say anything about what I say. What other politician has to go get permission or gets reviewed by somebody and they could be like what unelected or removed from office because they said something hurt someone's feelings. As sheriff Swank has continued posting on social media recently getting a lot of attention when asking if trans people should be barred from owning guns. He tells me his posts are intended to be talking points for the community bring up divisive topics intentionally to get input from his constituents and Swank says his posts are his own and do not officially represent the Pierce County Sheriff's Office. Regardless of whether you agree with me or not we will do constitutional policing at the Pierce County Sheriff's Office. We hold our deputies to a high standard. We make sure that they are not violating your constitutional rights and we give them discretion to go out there and do their job. All right so AJ is joining us now to go a little bit more in-depth in the conversation that you had with you know the chief there so the sheriff there I should say. So AJ it sounds like what he's saying is that it boils down to a freedom of speech issue. We know that CJTC they're investigating this so how are they gonna move forward on this issue? Right so Hannah at this point the Criminal Justice Training Commission does have these cases but as far as actually moving into the investigation giving them two specific investigators to look into it has not gotten to that point and that's important to note because as of right now this is the very beginning of this process. That being said if the Criminal Justice Training Commission does find any kind of validity to move forward Sheriff Swank could lose his certification as a sheriff as a member of law enforcement. So if that does happen because my understanding is that anyone can really file a complaint to the state's Criminal Justice Training Commission so if the Commission decides that there is wrongdoing here what does that mean for the sheriff at that point? And I think the question there would be what happens when a sheriff a member of law enforcement becomes decertified and you hear Sheriff Swank not only talk about that in our story but in some of the social media posts that he has put out himself saying that he is an elected official he is the sheriff he has been elected into that role and he believes even if he's decertified he still will hold on to that role and that is partly true at least according to what I found with state law. I looked into the state law and whereas anyone can be elected as the sheriff with or without certification that person must then get some sort of basic law enforcement certification within their first year so what would happen if the sheriff loses that certification as a member of law enforcement that's an unknown you have so many different official agencies pointing at one another the Criminal Justice Training Commission pointing at the county as well as the Attorney General's office the Attorney General's office pointing to the Criminal Justice Training Commission it is something that we would have to see what happens but again it is important to note at this point it hasn't even gotten into the investigation.

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