Surrendering our police force would be ‘folly’

Cpl. Aaron Greenmun (Photo courtesy Edmonds PD)

On Jan. 4, 1995, I was hired by the Edmonds Police Department as a police cadet. I was a student at Shoreline Community College, and one of my professors said Edmonds was where I belonged.

He was right. Next month will be 30 years serving you in this community that I have grown to love. My wife and I have raised three boys here and have been so blessed to call this place home.

This communication represents my feelings alone, and I write to you as a community member who happens to also serve as an Edmonds police officer. My thoughts do not represent my department, City leadership, or my union. In fact, this represents somewhat of a violation of personal rules about speaking out publicly, so I will say my piece and then go back to quietly working.

A good city where people want to work takes generations of blood, sweat, and tears to build. As our department has grown, I have witnessed the tremendous sacrifice and humbling sense of honor that your officers bring to work every day.

We were the department that people wanted to work for. I would take people on ride-alongs, and they would be amazed by how the community would wave at us. "With all their fingers even," one officer from another jurisdiction once joked with me.

Our motto is “Service Before Self.” It is a credo painted on our walls and etched in our character. My brothers and sisters in blue have held the intestines of stabbing victims while waiting for aid.

We have intercepted a man with a rifle as he walked towards an elementary school campus (then saved his life with department-provided first aid skills after shooting him). We have run towards danger and done it quietly, professionally, and with honor.

I have watched with sadness as my fellow City employees prepare for layoffs. For many, other jobs will come soon enough, but it’s the loss of this place that cuts so deep. In the backdrop of a city grieving its decision to surrender its own fire department and wishing it could undo that decision because of where it has left us, we appear to be preparing to walk the same path with our police department.

Will we be surprised at the outcome? Will we pause before it’s too late and reflect on reasons not to surrender something we have worked so hard to build?

Chief Michelle Bennett – our steadfast leader and a single mom of four – told us that she would leave before any of her personnel were laid off. As promised, she has announced her retirement before any of her personnel have received layoffs.

This represents a monumental loss for our city. Our administrators, elected leaders, and mayor are vetting all of the options – exercising their due diligence – but in the end, the financial outlook for the City is dire.

Attempts to use “affordable” comparables of police services from five years ago for adjacent county-provided law enforcement services, to what it would cost to work with those entities in 2025 dollars, are a dream.

The current cost of law enforcement services has experienced inflation in the same way that all things (including labor and the items needed to do our jobs) have. Stuff costs more than it used to.

Should the City decide to surrender control of law enforcement services in the same way it did with the fire service, the very predictable and preventable course of action we are experiencing with the regional fire authority will come to pass again. We have tried it and are presently experiencing the results of that folly.

Furthermore, I would encourage citizens to reach out to their friends and family members served by other police or sheriff’s departments to compare the level of service and care provided by Edmonds PD with any other. 

I won’t speak poorly about my professional peers. I will simply say that I am proud to work in a city where we will still show up to unlock your car, take your theft or burglary report (in person), and conduct ourselves in a manner that feels good and represents the community we stand for. That community is you.

There is a reason many law enforcement agencies must use $25,000 to $40,000 hiring bonuses to hire officers and are running short-handed. This job is hard. We are overpaid about 97% of the time, with an understanding that we will be there for the other 3%.

I have been hit, cut, punched, spit on, and told by people in crisis all the unseemly things that they would do to members of my family. I have picked up body parts and held the hand of dying people while lying to them that it was going to be all right. I carry post-traumatic stress and the burdens of my brother and sister officers in a place where I also carry the honor and pride of serving alongside them every day. Serving each of you.

Believe it or not, I’m not here for the accolades, thanks, or handshakes. Don’t get me wrong – they are appreciated. I am here because this calling and this community are the greatest. It is a privilege to serve you and look at my wife and kids and be able to tell them that I have done something worthwhile and that helps people.

Something that we can be proud of.

This financial crisis and the decisions attached to it have names. Names like Misty, Molly, April, Tabatha, Nikolas, and Samuel. These are names of fellow public servants who are proud to serve you every day. Once they and others like them depart, their absence will represent an undoing of a professional legacy that has taken generations to build. As we take pieces of this place away, it becomes something less.

We will still be here serving you every day, but each loss represents a reduction in the service that we can provide you. Seconds or minutes – when they really count –  can last a long time. Unlike our firefighter brethren, law enforcement hasn’t traditionally been quite as politically active and are traditionally a bit less popular.

We are OK with that. We get the quiet honor and privilege of serving you.

You have read my long-winded thoughts for a bit now, and I appreciate it. I will leave with this: Edmonds, it has been an honor. 

Regardless of what decisions you must make about paying for law enforcement and public safety, we will serve in the same way we have until we are told to do otherwise. It would be sad for me to take off my Edmonds patch and join another law enforcement agency, but I will follow my oath, regardless.

In the meantime, please lean in and support your elected officials while they make the hard decisions. This is a time when failing to make hard decisions is also a decision, one that turns its back on those serving you every day.

Please take good care and call us when you need us.

Aaron Greenmun was named Edmonds Police Officer of the Year in 2023.