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Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer will stand trial on July 11, 2022, for two misdemeanor charges.

In October 2021, Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s Office filed charges of false reporting and making a false statement to law enforcement against Troyer, who earlier this year called law enforcement on a Black newspaper carrier in his neighborhood, claiming to have been threatened.

Troyer has pleaded not guilty to all charges. If convicted, Sheriff Troyer faces up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

This comes as Troyer’s own department is struggling to hire new officers.

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Sgt. Darren Moss Jr., the department’s public information officer, said that with 40 open positions, the department has about twice as many vacancies as a typical year. It is not a problem of people leaving so much as a struggle to recruit new people to replace the retirees.

“The biggest issue hasn’t been, so much, those resignations and retirements — because we lose, on average, about 25 people every year — but we’ve only hired 11 hires for the year,” Moss said.

However, Moss does not believe the recruitment challenges are connected to Troyer’s case.

“We haven’t had anyone tell us they don’t want to work for us because of that reason, so I wouldn’t attribute a whole lot to that,” he said.

The department is focused on moving forward.

“It’s not resolved yet, so it’s there, and that’s something that people might look at as well,” Moss said. “But we’re focused on showing people who our department is and what we’re about.”

He believes the reasons for the recruitment difficulties are more to do with high-profile police brutality cases, noting that law enforcement departments nationwide are having a tough time bringing in new people.

“I think there’s been a lot of bad press on police, a lot of big cases — the Manny Ellis case [in Tacoma] or the George Floyd case,” Moss said. “People see those things and think negatively about all police officers.”

In the meantime, the Pierce County department is trying its best, with a dedicated entirely to recruitment, advertising campaigns, and a $15,000 signing bonus for lateral applicants.

“We’re a busy place, there are a lot of opportunities at our department, I don’t think that other agencies have as much to offer as we do, so hopefully we can get our numbers up soon,” Moss said.