Ferndale community members got the chance Tuesday, March 25, to put two finalists for the Ferndale Police Chief position in the hot seat.
Both candidates, James Miyashiro and Sean O’Laughlin, stressed their belief in growing trust between the Ferndale community and the police department during the forum at the Pioneer Pavilion Community Center. Conversations at tables ranged from community relationships and handling speeding complaints to college sports. The forum came after the candidates had toured Ferndale earlier in the day.
Miyashiro or O’Laughlin will replace former police chief Kevin Turner, who announced his retirement in October. During the search for a new chief, headed by the Washington Association of Sheriff’s & Police Chiefs, Matt Huffman has served as interim police chief.
Currently, both candidates work at university police departments: Miyashiro is the Assistant Vice President for Public Safety at the University of San Diego while Sean O’Laughlin is the Deputy Chief of Police at Eastern Washington University.
Miyashiro told Cascadia Daily News he liked Ferndale because it was a smaller town and had a different style of living than San Diego. His sister used to live in Bellingham and he’s visited the area multiple times, but never stopped at Ferndale.
He said if selected for the chief of police position, he’d like to hold more community forums where he could speak face to face with residents and have more officers engaged in community policing.
“I talked to another group and they said they only see officers drive by,” he said. “I don’t really think that’s something that we want to perceive as our job … When you have that interaction, the community is the one that’s going to call the police once they see something wrong.”
Miyashiro has nearly 40 years of police experience, calling it his passion.
O’Laughlin, a lifelong Washingtonian and former football player for the University of Washington, has served in various law enforcement and military capacities. He started at the UW Police Department in 2001 and then went to EWU in 2018.
For O’Laughlin, community policing looks like getting out in the school districts and hosting events through the police department. It also means making sure that officers know about community engagement expectations.
“That’s how you’re ingrained within the community and you know what’s going on,” he said. “I’d like to do a community survey within the first six months of my job just to get feedback from the community on what the police department’s doing well, what the police department needs to work on.”
A final decision won’t be made immediately since there are a few more rounds of interviews, a city spokesperson told CDN.
Annie Todd is CDN’s criminal justice/enterprise reporter; reach her at annietodd@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 130.
