Why is it important that San Juan County WA Sheriff’s Log be published. It provides the reader with an idea of the frequency of :

• people with mental health issues becoming a public safety/law enforcement problem.
• loose dogs killing farm animals.
• people driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs
• a rash of cars being prowled
• trouble in the ferry lanes
• domestic violence
• mail stolen
• assaults
• vandalism
• burglaries
• and so on….

Occasionally, there are a few laughs – reports of escaped cows being herded back home for example. Overall, the log provides useful information that the public is better off knowing.

Usually the San Juan County, WA  Sheriff’s Log posted on this website is current. The Sheriff’s office sent out a report of the incidents deputies had responded to in the past week. I formatted it and posted within two days of receipt.

The report compiled by the SO was appreciated.

Prior to providing the report, the Sheriff’s Office would copy the individual forms the deputies used. The copies would be clipped to a clipboard which was placed in the office’s breakroom. Reporters came in and copied the pertinent information from the pages. At first, names and addresses etc. were visible.   – No local news media has posted names for the past couple of decades. –  Towards the end of the clipboard era, the names were redacted – crossed out with a black marker – from the copies reporters viewed.

So what has changed. On July 6, 2026 local media received an email from Sheriff Eric Peter announcing his office would, effective immediately, cease providing the summary of incident reports they had been providing.

No alternative means of obtaining the information was offered. The clipboard method was not going to be provided.

This left the media with the only option left using the Public Records Act to access the information. Ironically, the Sheriff cited use of the PRA as the reason for discontinuing the release of the incident report summary.

“Effective immediately, the Sheriff’s Office will no longer prepare or distribute the weekly media line report to local newspapers. The Sheriff’s Office remains committed to transparency and keeping the public informed. However, the publication of the weekly media log has resulted in a significant increase in public records requests for the incidents listed in the report, as well as requests for associated body-worn camera footage. The volume of these requests has placed an unsustainable burden on our Civil Office and the county’s single Public Records Clerk.”

Absent any alternative, I have submitted two Public Record Requests. One for the incident reports covering July 1 through 7, 2026, and the other one for July 9-15, 2026.

The first PRA request was filed on July 8.

• On Thursday, July 9, I received an email sent at 5:01 pm in response to the PRA request. It included instructions for paying $7.50 for the PDFs.
• Since the county offices were closed on Friday, I paid on Monday, July 13.
• On July 15, I received two PDFs.  They covered incident reports for July 1 and 2.
• As of July 20, I have not received any more.
• The records center said the first PRA request will be filled by July 29

This is not an ideal solution for either the Sheriff’s office or local media. Besides the delay in covering the news, many of the reports are being redacted by just providing a blank page instead of the report. The incidents are numbered, so it is easy to see how many are missing.

It is my hope that a more reasonable solution that works for everyone can be found. Being uninformed is not ideal for anyone.

–Sharon Kivisto, Editor, San Juan Islander