County rounds up 42 in crime sweep

Kitsap County law enforcement took a decisive step in cleaning up local crime last week, when 42 felony criminals were picked up in a single sweep. The action, which involved 24 officers from the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies, was carefully choreographed for maximum effect.

The effort was dubbed “Kitsap Klean Up,” and promised to be the first of many such events.

“This was an effort to get predatory criminals off the street,” said U.S. Marshal Eric Robertson, who supervised the effort along with Kitsap County Sheriff Steve Boyer. “These were the worst of the worst.”

Even so, there were no murder warrants issued for those captured.

All were men except for one woman, a local criminal who has the same name — although spelled slightly differently — as Boyer’s daughter. Boyer said he felt a stab of apprehension when he first saw the report but he “was sure it wasn’t her.”

Boyer said the sweep presented an efficient, effective strategy that demonstrated “the wave of the future” of law enforcement.

“This represented a new level of interdepartmental and inter-jurisdictional cooperation,” Boyer said. “It was a distinct end to the turf battles of yesterday.”

Most of the arrests occurred in Kitsap County, although criminal apprehensions took place in Centralia and Puyallup.

There were also nine out-of-state arrests in California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado and Hawaii.

Boyer said the criminals were tracked down by solid detective work and records searches. In some cases the criminal had applied for some type of public assistance.

Said Boyer, “A lot of these people know how to avoid incarceration but other than that they aren’t very bright.”

Aside from the Sheriff and U.S. Marshals, the sweep received help from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Social Security Administration and local police departments in Poulsbo and Bremerton.

“While many jurisdictions nibble at the problem we met it head on,” Boyer said. “The county is safer today than it was yesterday.”

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