Yakima Sheriff Bob Udell Thankful For Community Support

The specifics of Yakima County help determine the nature of the job for the Yakima County Sheriff and his deputies.  Yakima is the second largest county in size--that's a lot of ground to cover. Yakima County is seventh out of 39 counties in population--that's a lot of citizens with which to interact and with a limited sized staff it all adds up to a BIG job.

Now consider that Yakima is and has been for sometime, a drug hub.  Drugs come up from Mexico and California to Yakima and they are dispersed throughout the Western US from here.  All that means gangs and gangs mean significantly more violent crimes and homicides than the national average.  With that, the big job just got bigger!

But wait, there's more.  Sheriff Bob Udell was on the KIT Morning News today 3/10/21 and said he's keeping his eye on proposed legislation in Olympia that if passed, would limit some of the tools used by law enforcement to catch the bad guys and keep us all safe - thus making the bigger job bigger still.

Udell says drugs and gangs are areas where a greater emphasis can have an impact in reducing some of the homicides and violent crime the County experiences.  Fentanyl is everywhere according to Udell.  He says dealers who specialize in other kinds of drugs seems to always have fentanyl on hand as well. He warns that the overdose rate so far this year is already eclipsing last year's rate.

The Sheriff says his job is stressful but he loves the work and the people he works with and he's proud of the accomplishments of the Yakima County Sheriff's Office.