Chelan County Sheriff Brian Burnett Meeting with Communities Over New Police Legislation

Chelan County Sheriff Brian Burnett is hosting a series of community meetings the first two weeks of August regarding the new legislation on police reform that is in effect.

He says there has been a lot of questions and concerns from residents.

"Inform people what the different skills and impacts to our level of service and response would look like. It's better to get out there now rather than have people upset when they call and they're expecting a certain level of service but things have changed."

He says they hope to provide an online option for people who can't attend.

Burnett noted that while the primary goal is information, if it drives up interest in talking to state legislators about the changes with hopes of reversing them, that would be a good side benefit.

"When everything came down and we started putting it all on paper and what it looked like, even we were shocked to see what the total impact looked like for the overall service and public safety in our community."

He says they stopped the pursuit of the stolen bus recently due to the fact that the laws could be enforced retroactively.