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Burien City Manager Adolfo Bailon, King County Sheriff Patty Cole-Tindall and Burien Police Chief Ted Boe.
Information from the King County Sheriff’s office
On April 10, without providing any supporting facts, Burien City Manager Adolfo Bailon sent Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall a letter demanding the removal of Major Ted Boe of the King County Sheriff’s Office as Burien’s chief of police. Sheriff Cole-Tindall responded with a request for examples of any factual incidents that might support Bailon’s request, as well details on why the city manager has reached this conclusion. Bailon has yet to provide this requested information.
The request was surprising because, approximately two hours prior to Bailon’s letter, Burien was given detailed statistics on the first three months of 2024 that demonstrate the high level of police service in Burien. Under Chief Boe’s leadership, Burien PD has made 439 arrests, led by 82 arrests for public use or possession of drugs and 70 arrests for assault. Auto theft, residential burglary, vandalism and assault are all down from last year over the same time period. An increase in robbery was tied to a specific crime spree where the suspects are now in custody. These results were consistent with preliminary 2023 stats, which showed a 7% decrease for Burien in both crimes against persons and crimes against property.
These results demonstrate excellent policing and do not show that there is a failure of leadership in the Burien Police Department. Indeed, at a February 12, 2024, special meeting of the Burien City Council, Councilmember Akey thanked Chief Boe for his work and noted the great amount of respect in the community for the Burien Police Department. Councilmember Andrade echoed these remarks, pointing out that Burien holds its police department in high regard. Councilmember Matta said that Chief Boe had “done a great job as the executive head of the police department.”
Because the facts show that Chief Boe is doing a great job leading the Burien Police Department, Sheriff Cole-Tindall told City Manager Bailon that the timing of his request to remove the chief raised its own concerns. Chief Boe has provided sworn testimony in a lawsuit regarding the constitutionality of Burien’s current public camping ordinance. State law prohibits any local government from retaliating against a person for raising concerns with the constitutionality of government action. King County cannot be party to retaliatory action against the chief.
Moreover, in response to Bailon’s unsupported demand to remove Chief Boe, the sheriff pointed out that Burien was withholding all payment for police services at the city manager’s direction, even though those services continue to be provided every day to the residents of Burien. Until the city resolves this breach of its agreement with the Sheriff’s Office, there is little need to account for the city manager’s undisclosed concerns.