Tony Overman/The Olympian
Police officer Ed McClanahan patrols the streets during his swing-shift assignment.

Keeping the peace

Violent crime is exception, not rule

Orginally published August 15, 2001

Lacey police Officer Ed McClanahan grabs a couple of restraining orders before returning to the road at 7:10 p.m.

He stops by a baby-blue house with white trim and serves the order on a bearded man with a cigarette.

This is one of the many daily tasks that McClanahan and other police officers do to keep the peace in their city.

Some people say "Thank you" politely when served the papers, others curse the person who asked for the restraining order, and others are surprised, McClanahan says as he drives away.

"Yesterday we were just busy," McClanahan says. "Going from call to call to call. Barely had time to sneak in lunch. Today it's been quiet."

Lacey had 49.9 reportable crimes per 1,000 people in 2000, according to preliminary statistics from the Washington Uniform Crime Reports. Most of those were property crimes -- arson, burglary, theft and motor vehicle theft -- at 46.9 per 1,000.

Thefts topped the list at 1,010 in 2000. In contrast, there were 3 violent crimes per 1,000 people in Lacey.

"The quality of life and safety of the city is very high," Lacey police Cmdr. Ed Sorger says.

The recent arrest of Michael J. Braae -- suspected of killing a Lacey woman and raping or killing other women -- is an aberration, Sorger says.

The city did not have any homicides in 1997, 1998 or 1999.

"Not that we don't have incidents like the recent one, but they're few and far between," Sorger says.

McClanahan cruises down busy roads, neighborhoods and woodsy streets.

"We spend a lot of time just browsing in hopes that our presence will deter something, or we will be fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time," McClanahan says as he cruises past Illuminet on Intelco Loop.

McClanahan's day picks up its tempo slightly when he pulls

into a parking lot off Martin Way where an officer and a reserve officer are pulling over a black Ford Tempo.

A nearby family lines up on their front patio to watch.

The officers run names through computers and find out there is a warrant out for the arrest of one of the three women.

An officer painstakingly searches the car.

"These can be time-consuming," McClanahan says.

There are a lot of places to search in a car.

"We know this gal is into narcotics," McClanahan says. "We've arrested her before."

Continuing to talk to dispatchers and glean computer records, the officers learn there are felony warrants out for at least two of the three women.

The driver offers advice on how to open the trunk from the back seat of the other officer's car.

When all three of the women are cuffed, McClanahan leaves the other officers to finish up.

"There's enough going on normally to keep an officer's interest up," McClanahan says of his job. "But there's not so much it's a constant burden."

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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