ANACORTES -- When Bonnie Bowers took over as police chief in May she had to jump right in.

There was a budget to build.

There were officers to recruit.

But sometimes she still has to remind herself that she’s in charge.

“I don’t feel like the chief. I know I’m doing the job of chief and I am the chief but when someone yells chief I look around for Chief (Mike) King,” she said.

As her first 100 days in the position come to a close she knows what direction she wants the department to go — and where the officers she leads want it to go.

“It’s a good department. It’s a great crew. The people are our greatest asset,” Bowers said.

Bowers started as chief May 6.

She grew up in Skagit County and graduated from Mount Vernon High School. She is working to complete her bachelor’s degree at Washington State University and expects to graduate in June 2009.

She interned at the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office and went to work there full time in 1984. She worked as a corrections deputy, patrol deputy, field training officer and detective. She was promoted to sergeant, then traffic sergeant. She was made detachment chief in La Conner when the city contracted with the Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement services. At the same time, she was responsible for the county’s accreditation and training programs.

Bowers joined the Anacortes department as captain in 2006.

The top position became available when then-chief Mike King retired at the end of March. He worked more than 32 years in law enforcement, including nearly 14 years here as chief.

Bowers’ first move as chief was to talk to all the employees and find out what they felt the department was doing well, what one thing they would change and their expectations of her as chief.

She keeps the answers on a bulletin board in her office.

Bowers said she is pleased with the answers she got about what the department is doing well.

A majority of the answers focused on serving the community.

“We respond to all calls for service and are helpful to the community with non-criminal issues,” one answer reads.

Other answers include hiring and retaining good people, employees are treated well, the staff works hard and the department has a good reputation in the community.

Bowers said the department does a lot of community caretaking and it’s good to hear officers think the department is serving the community’s needs.

“They’re proud we’re able to provide that service for the community,” she said.

Accountability and fairness were the areas most respondents said they would change in the department.

“That theme rang through,” Bowers said. “We’re accountable to each other and me as the chief, but also to the community.”

“There is a different standard for different people,” one answer reads,” and everyone has to be held to the same standard, everyone needs to contribute.”

Other answers include more communication from management and between divisions, more teamwork, more training and better attitudes.

Bowers also knows what they expect of her.

Most said to be consistent, communicate and keep an open door policy. Several said she simply needs to keep it up.

“Continue doing the job you have been doing and make people accountable for the job they are doing,” one answer reads.

Bowers also shared her five cardinal rules with department staff: (1) Zero tolerance for bullying or harassing behavior in the workplace, (2) Don’t lie — that means don’t exaggerate, fabricate, guess or imagine. If you don’t know, simply say “I don’t know.” (3) No conduct unbecoming — on or off duty. Conduct unbecoming is legally defined as “misconduct that a reasonable officer would know would cause public disrepute to the employees and department.” (4) No abuse of authority and (5) No insubordination.

Bowers has several challenges ahead of her — one is staffing.

The department is currently short three officers. It is budgeted for 25 but only has 22 commissioned officers.

One opening comes after the recent firing of officer Bradford Stavig for improperly using his work computer.

But the Anacortes department has been lucky, largely avoiding the higher attrition rates at other area departments. Some have been down up to seven officers at a time.

“There’s been a hiring frenzy in the past few years that we haven’t had to participate in. It seems it’s our time,” she said. “I hope the flood gates haven’t opened.”

Additionally, the department has seven officers that could retire at any time.

“We’re so lucky to have these people. They’re professional and successful,” Bowers said. “I appreciate my senior officers and every day I tell them how much I appreciate them.”

She said it says something about the department that there isn’t a lot of turnover.

“We don’t have a lot of people leave and that’s a good thing,” she said.

The department recently hired a new patrol officer and is looking to add two more soon.

Bowers said she is going quickly but carefully through the hiring process. The process to hire and train a new officer is expensive and time consuming.

“I’d rather be careful and have a candidate who will work at the department for 20 years,” she said.

For now, the department is assigning one fewer officer to each shift and paying overtime.



With the downturn in the economy, the department’s 2009 budget is a balancing act of wages, required training costs and increasing utility and fuel bills.

The budget process started in May, just as Bowers took over as chief.

The department’s budget comes from the city’s general fund.

“Of course we’re not a revenue-generating source, which we shouldn’t be. So, we have to account for everything we spend,” she said.

She said the department is in line to meet its 2008 budget of about $3.89 million. She expects the 2009 budget to come out around $4 million, factoring in cost of living increases and higher utility and fuel costs.

Bowers said rising gas prices have touched everything — even the department’s bullets cost more now.

Other costs, like jail booking fees and medical treatment (which the department is required to pay for arrested suspects until sentencing) are also going up. The department budgeted $12,000 this year for medical treatment and has used 95 percent already.

“That worries me,” Bowers said.

The building, which is 8 years old, also needs some care like carpet cleaning and painting.

“When it comes to public safety it’s hard to weigh the dollars and community safety,” Bowers said.

Officers are required to have 24 hours of continuing education every year — from ethics, policy updates and law changes to defensive tactics, less lethal options and firearm training.

“That’s important to me because like every profession, laws change, tactics change and if we’re not up on it we can’t do our job as well,” Bowers said. “We want to make sure it’s meaningful training.”



As she plans for the future of the department, Bowers need only look at a white board in her office with a list of goals for this year.

“We were ambitious, Chief King and I, when we put those up,” she said.

Some have already been accomplished, like updating the city’s pawn and secondhand shop policy. Other goals include a five-year strategic plan for 2009-2013, continuing to review and update job descriptions and mental health training. By the end of the year, Bowers said 70 percent of the officers will have received training.

Dealing with people who have mental health problems is an issue that is not going away in our community, she said.

Bowers is also working to establish job performance objectives, which she says is not counting tickets or arrests.

“We want to see it be a reflection of time management,” she said.

In the next few years she sees the city needing to add a third detective to help investigate more cases in computer crimes and child abuse and neglect.

“We experience a lot of computer crime and it’s not just us, it’s everywhere,” she said.

It includes financial crimes and Internet stalking, which are labor-intensive to investigate.

The department has seen a spike in requests from the Department of Social and Health Services to investigate reports of child abuse or neglect. In the last year there has been a 100 percent increase in referrals, Bowers said.

The department is also encouraging more foot patrols as part of a wellness program to encourage physical fitness and to get out in the community.

“We’re trying to do a better job of being visible in the community on patrol,” she said.

There are many areas the department could be involved in, but Bowers said she would like to see the department focus on things it can do really well and try not to take on too many programs.

“We really need to be a meat and potatoes department,” she said. “We have to be smart about sharing resources (with other agencies).”