Normandy Park City Scene      Fall 2026
12
T
he Police Department is 
currently budgeted for 
eleven full time Officers 
which includes the Chief of Police. 
With the recent departure of one of 
our new Officers, we currently have 
two vacancies. This coupled with an 
injury to one of our other Officers 
has essentially left the Police 
Department down three positions 
for the majority of the last year.
Hiring a police officer involves 
several steps designed to ensure 
candidates meet the professional, 
physical, and psychological 
standards required for the position. 
Candidates who successfully 
complete the initial application 
and screening process participate 
in an Oral Board, which is the 
formal interview portion of the 
Police Department Staffing
T
he State of Washington 
recently released the 
2025 year end crime 
report. The State as a whole saw 
a decrease in crime especially 
violent crime. One of the 
locations in King County with 
the biggest decreases in crime 
from the previous year was our 
City. Crime decreased 38% in 
2025 over 2024. There is no one 
factor responsible for this but 
changes in State laws as well 
as our Department’s pro-active 
approach to traffic enforcement 
appear to be paying dividends. 
Crime was significantly down 
throughout King County 
matching State wide trends. In 
addition to our favorable crime 
statistics, your Officers wrote 
2025 Crime 
Statistics
hiring process. Successful 
candidates then move through 
a background investigation, 
polygraph examination, 
psychological evaluation, 
and physical examination 
before receiving a final offer of 
employment.
Currently, two candidates have 
successfully completed their Oral 
Boards and have advanced to the 
background investigation stage. 
If they successfully complete 
the remaining evaluations, they 
will be hired and scheduled to attend 
the Police Academy.
The Police Academy lasts 
approximately 4½ months. After 
graduating, new officers complete an 
additional 14 weeks of field training, 
working alongside experienced 
officers before 
they are cleared to 
independently fill 
patrol shifts.
From initial interviews 
through academy and 
field training, the process 
is intentionally thorough 
and can take several 
months before a newly 
hired officer is ready to 
independently serve in 
the community.
Our injured Officer 
is set to return at the beginning of 
November. Despite recent staffing 
issues the Police Department has 
maintained the quality service it is 
known for and continues to respond 
to calls for service and proactively 
enforce traffic laws.
over a thousand tickets. These 
tickets were primarily written for 
speeding but also for other traffic 
related offenses.
If you know of an area that you 
feel could benefit from additional 
traffic enforcement please  
email Chief Dan Yourkoski at  
dyourkoski@normandyparkwa.gov.  
In your email please include the type 
of violations you are witnessing and 
the time of day you frequently see it.
Chief Dan Yourkoski in action.

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