Dag Garrison took over the Issaquah Police chief job in 1976, when the city’s population was a scattered 4,000. His biggest challenge that winter was using a snowmobile to haul home housewives stranded at the supermarket because of heavy drifts.
Since then, the city’s population has more than tripled and the number of police department employees has increased from eight to 54. Instead of the creaky office next to the rusty jail with the clanging keys, law-enforcement headquarters is now a $10 million, three-level, high-tech facility that is the envy of many King County cities.
Now, after 25 years and two heart attacks and with a unique perspective on the city’s evolution, Garrison is retiring.
By comparison, the longest tenure of a Seattle police chief was 15 years (Patrick Fitzsimons retired in 1994), and the average tenure for a police chief in a major U.S. city is only 3-1/2 years, according to the police Executive Research Forum, in Washington, D.C.
Garrison, 60, leaves a police department that he thinks, despite its growth, still reflects the priority on community service that he felt that first winter a quarter-century ago. Garrison calls it being subject to “the will of the citizens.”
Issaquah’s department is one of the few agencies that help people who are locked out of their homes. Officers are taught to plug into schools and help out senior citizens. Garrison himself organized “Garrison’s Guerillas,” a volunteer group of senior citizens who check on homes while residents are away.
“I look for people who are not afraid to be kind,” says Garrison, speaking about his department’s employees, every one of whom he interviewed and hand-picked. “Even if it’s not a crime-related issue.”
His community-oriented philosophy was validated in the 1995 election, he says, when nearly 70 percent of the city’s voters approved $5 million in municipal bonds for the new police facility.
Raised in Santa Clara, Calif., Garrison was hired out of Seaside, Calif., where he was a lieutenant on the police force. For years, he and his family vacationed in North Bend, enjoying the fishing, hiking and pace of life.
When the job opened up in Issaquah, he knew it would be a good fit and took it immediately.
Garrison watched in the 1980s as developers started constructing shopping centers on vacant land. The population, and the cars, followed. So did the problems.
All of a sudden, police had a dramatically increased workload. Retail crimes and traffic complaints shot up. Narcotics seeped into the city; a six-month undercover investigation led to 50 arrests.
“When I started, the biggest complaints people had were about the backup at the four-way flashing light at Front and Sunset,” Garrison says.
The city has grown to the point where many of the things police officers did naturally as members of the community had to be made formal: outreach programs for schoolchildren and senior citizens; citizens police academies; an open-door policy at his office.
Community policing is a goal of many departments, but Garrison says it is increasingly difficult with restricted budgets and staffs even as cities continue to grow. Many departments grapple with the proper balance between enforcement and community service, he said.
But therein, according to friends and peers, lies Garrison’s strength.
“He cared about honesty, about the community, and he implanted the ideas very strongly in his staff,” says Issaquah Police Cmdr. Chris Felstad, who has known Garrison for more than 20 years. “He kept us very grounded in the community. Everyone has that attitude, from the front counter to the last officer in the line.”
Joe Forkner, a city councilman who has known Garrison about 10 years, says the best proof of Garrison’s leadership is how well the department has run since he went on medical leave three months ago. His retirement becomes official in March.
Garrison has no plans to leave Overlake Park neighborhood, where he has lived with his wife, Beth, and raised his four children.
“Sure, there were disappointments and low points, but I don’t really recall those now,” Garrison says. “When I look back, I consider the positive relationships, the positive work. I appreciate the fact that I can see children playing on the street without being fearful.”