Delivering eviction notices has become increasingly dangerous for officers after the expiration of COVID pandemic eviction moratoriums, law enforcement officials say.
A deputy with the King County Sheriff’s Office was shot Monday in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle while serving an eviction notice, becoming the latest officer in the nation to face violence over a lockout order.
“Emotions are extremely high because people feel very strongly about law enforcement and someone who’s there to intercede into their space,” Steve Strachan, executive director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, told KOMO News.
Dangerous situations have unfolded in states across the country over eviction notices. A New Jersey woman, for example, lit the home she shared with dozens of cats on fire after authorities served an eviction notice this month. The house exploded, killing the woman and some of the cats.
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King County Sheriff’s Office vehicle. (King County Sheriff’s Office)
A sheriff’s deputy in Oklahoma was fatally shot over the summer while serving an eviction notice. And a deputy constable and a landlord in New Orleans were both shot and injured in October while serving an eviction notice. In Massachusetts, a woman protesting another person’s eviction attempted to unleash a swarm of bees on law enforcement officials in October.
“Society is under a great deal of stress. The pandemic, the economy, a lot of division. Law enforcement is in the middle.”
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Rorie S. Woods, 55, of Hadley, Mass., center, wears a beekeeping suit while being taken into custody by Hampden County Sheriff’s Department officers, in Longmeadow, Mass. Woods is accused of unleashing bees on sheriff’s deputies serving an eviction notice, one of many bizarre crimes in 2022. (Robert Rizzuto/Hampden County Sheriff’s Department via AP)
Strachan told KOMO News he believes attacks in Washington against law enforcement over eviction notices have increased by as much as 39% from 2021 to 2022, when Washington ended its eviction moratorium rolled out during the pandemic.
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Seattle Police respond to a call in downtown Seattle. (iStock)
“Society is under a great deal of stress,” Strachan added. “The pandemic, the economy, a lot of division. Law enforcement is in the middle.”
Data on such violence is difficult to track because many police departments don’t report such incidents to the FBI because evictions begin as civil disputes, not criminal cases, KOMO News reported.
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A Washington property owner says she may leave the state after squatters took over her property (KIRO 7 News)
Violence against cops comes as residents across the country report an increase in squatters refusing to leave properties they do not own, resulting in lengthy legal battles. Eviction moratoriums from the pandemic have also fanned the flames of that issue, previous reporting from Fox News Digital found.
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Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
