Edmonds Mayor Mike Rosen has named Assistant Police Chief Loi Dawkins as his choice for the new Edmonds police chief, subject to Edmonds City Council confirmation during the council’s Tuesday, July 8 meeting.
The appointment recommendation was announced as part of the Edmonds City Council agenda posted on Wednesday.
Dawkins was hired in 2022 as one of the city’s two assistant police chiefs, overseeing the city’s administrative services division. She has 25 years of police experience and came to Edmonds from the King County Sheriff’s Office.
The other assistant police chief, Rod Sniffen, has been serving as interim chief since the retirement of Police Chief Michelle Bennett in February.
Under the proposed employment agreement, Dawkins would begin her job on Aug. 1 and would receive an annual salary of $265,890.
Preliminary, but congrats to Chief Dawkins and thanks for leading Chief Sniffen!
Good due diligence and excellent choice, Mr. Mayor! Chief Dawson has a wealth of law enforcement experience and a demonstrated track record for community care, trust and safety. She maybe the ultimate candidate for a turnaround in the declining morale of a police department hit hard with recent budget cuts. I’ve experienced her positive approach to community policing personally in her three-year tenure as our assistant chief.
OK Council. Your turn!
Given Chief Dawkins’ experience with King County Sheriff’s office, I hope she reviews the savings that could accrue to Edmonds taxpayers by moving to a County Sheriff contract. There’s ample evidence that changing from an internal police department to a County contract would save 30-40% in taxpayer costs. The change would allow Edmonds’ logo uniforms and police cars, lateral transfers of Edmonds officers to the Sheriiff’s office, more career opportunities for police officers, and would save $4-5 million per year compared with the bloated $19 million/yr internal police budget. (Of course Chief Dawkins would have a hard time justifying her $265,000 per year salary if she was paid by the Sheriff’s office). The Mayor and Council refuse to negotiate pricing for a custom County police contract (which has real economies of scale, unlike the RFA’s missing economies of scale). They refuse to tell taxpayers that there’s a way to save $4-$6 million per year in taxes and keep the same level of service. Instead they just ignore ways to save money and promote an unjustified $14.5 million tax levy lift. When are they going to put transparency and taxpayers first and start getting serious about fiscal discipline? When are they going to analyze ‘best practices’ that save money rather than falsely claim it can’t be done? Please join 113 other anti-tax levy petitioners: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/save-45-million-in-new-taxes
Chief Dawkins is no less deserving of previous Police Chiefs but $265,000 a year (on top of an eventual pension) seems excessive to me.
It would be nice to have a breakdown of salaries, pensions and perks of all city employees and elected officials.
I’m pleased the selection process for Chief of Police has been smooth and drama-free this time. Such a contrast to the last time a police chief retired; that process broke down completely. A painful series of false starts and bad judgements in City Hall resulted in Edmonds going 20 months without a confirmed Chief of Police. Fortunately voters put some new people in charge assuring the process could be done professionally this time.
Loi Dawkins has an impressive record, and I’m confident she will do a fine job in her new role. Welcome Chief Dawkins!