Washington State

Office of the Attorney General

Attorney General

Bob Ferguson

AGO 1991 NO. 10 >

RCW 69.50.505(f)(1) provides that forfeited property may be retained for use by a law enforcement agency of the state.  A coroner does not act as a law enforcement agency of the state.  Therefore, a coroner is not entitled to use a motor vehicle forfeited pursuant to RCW 69.50.505(f)(1).

AGO 1972 NO. 12 >

A county civil service commission for sheriff's office employees, organized and operating under the provisions of chapter 41.14 RCW, may not promulgate a blanket regulation excluding persons otherwise qualified under RCW 41.14.100 from making application for any civil service position in a sheriff's department, regardless of its duties, on the basis of their being less than twenty-one years of age and thus not legally able to enter a tavern for law enforcement purposes; however, in those selected classes of positions which require the employee to enter taverns for these purposes, a requirement that the applicant be at least twenty-one years of age, and thus legally able to enter a tavern, would be valid.

AGLO 1980 NO. 13 >

As amended by § 1, chapter 132, Laws of 1979, RCW 36.28.180 does authorize the expenditure of county money for civilian clothing for nonuniformed sheriff deputies such as detectives, but only to the extent that the civilian clothing in question has been determined to be necessary for the performance of their official duties.

AGO 1984 NO. 16 >

A county sheriff, who officially comes into possession of "lost and found" money, may not keep and retain that money for his office's own use under any of the applicable provisions of chapter 63.40 RCW.

AGO 1959 NO. 16 >

Motor vehicles left in storage by other than registered owner in excess of fifteen days is abandoned and must be turned over to the sheriff.  Garage owner failing to do so is guilty of a misdemeanor under RCW 46.64.050 and forfeits his claim for storage.

AGO 1975 NO. 19 >

In view of the amendment of RCW 42.14.100 by § 3, chapter 95, Laws of 1963, a deputy county sheriff is not required by state law to be a resident of the county which he serves.

AGO 1989 NO. 19 >

In order to comply with the auction requirements of RCW 9.41.098, a law enforcement agency must conduct its initial auction of firearms within one year after accumulating ten "forfeited" firearms as defined in the statute, excluding any firearms which the agency is legally entitled to retain for its own use; agencies which have not accumulated ten "forfeited" firearms may use their own discretion in deciding when to conduct an auction.

AGLO 1978 NO. 20 >

Neither the fact that RCW 41.14.190 is a special statute relating only to deputy county sheriffs and related personnel nor the further fact that this law was originally adopted as part of an initiative to the people is sufficient to cause the statute (prohibiting political activities by deputy sheriffs) to remain fully enforceable and unaffected by the later enactment of § 1, chapter 136, Laws of 1974, 1st Ex.Sess., whereby the legislature granted the right to participate in designated political activities to all state and local governmental employees.

AGO 1980 NO. 20 >

(1) Under the provisions of chapter 9.73 RCW, the "incoming phone calls" exception in RCW 9.73.090(1)(a) does permit a police agency to record those incoming calls which are not of an "emergency" nature(2) Assuming the foregoing, however, care must be taken in applying the "incoming phone calls" exception in RCW 9.73.090(1)(a) where the call is received by a police agent who has deliberately induced a criminal suspect, not yet arrested or formally charged, to make an incoming call to the police agency; there, wherever the spirit or the letter of the statute dictates taped mutual consent or judicial authorization prior to recording a telephone conversation with a criminal suspect, the "incoming calls" exception could well be held inapplicable even if single party consent is present.(3) The several statutory exceptions to the Privacy Act set forth in RCW 9.73.030(2), RCW 9.73.090(1)(a), RCW 9.73.090(1)(b) and RCW 9.73.090(2) do not overlap each other in such a way as to render any such exception(s) totally duplicative of another and therefore unnecessary and superfluous.

AGO 1984 NO. 24 >

Where a county sheriff makes one or more unsuccessful attempts to serve (or execute) an arrest warrant which is later cancelled or expires without having been successfully executed, and the sheriff makes a return of "not found" in order to show his efforts to execute the warrant, the sheriff is then entitled to a fee of five dollars "for making a return" plus a mileage fee, as provided for in RCW 36.18.040.