'Officer Needs Help' Calls Much More Common In Pierce Co: Report

TACOMA, WA — Pierce County law enforcement officers are much more likely than their contemporaries to issue an 'officer needs help' call, calling in a large police response to an incident, according to a new report from The News Tribune.

As the Tribune's Stacia Glenn reports, South Sound 911 - which fields dispatching duties for almost all law enforcement agencies in Pierce County - sent out 230 "officer needs help" from 2011 through January 2021. For comparison, Thurston 911 Communications told the Tribune they had only had "one or two" of those calls over the last decade, and the King County Sheriff's Office said they had fewer than 10 "officer needs help" responses in the last 14 years.

And of all 230 of Pierce County's "officer needs help" alerts, only 12 ended up needed police reports, the Tribune reported.

'Officer needs help' calls are under particular scrutiny because of the recent incident involving Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer. On Jan. 27, Troyer issued an "officer needs help" call following his confrontation with newspaper delivery driver Sedrick Altheimer, claiming that Altheimer had threatened his life. Altheimer denies threatening Troyer, and Troyer later recanted that statement in an interview with police, but a large police response was called on the delivery driver. Troyer has since been charged with one count of false reporting, and one count of making a false or misleading statement to a public servant. A review from the county also found that Troyer broke several Pierce County Sheriff's Department policies. Troyer has denied any wrongdoing.

>> Read the full report from The News Tribune.