Boats on lake draw increase in police patrols during summer

Published 12:20 pm Thursday, December 11, 2008

By Dennis Box

The Courier-Herald

Memorial Day kicked off boating season in full force on Lake Tapps and along with boats comes police enforcement.

As in previous years, the Pierce County Sheriff's Marine Unit and the Bonney Lake Police Department's Marine Unit will be patrolling the lake.

The sheriff's marine unit will patrol about three-quarters of the lake and the Bonney Lake unit will patrol the Church Lake area.

Both units will work together as needed according to interim Police Chief Buster McGehee and Sgt. Jerry Lawrence of the Pierce County Sheriff's Marine Unit.

"We can go anywhere in the lake," McGehee said. "We worked cooperatively with the county as needed."

According to Lawrence, due to increased enforcement problems on the lake, Pierce County Councilman Shawn Bunney added an additional $50,000 from the council budget for increase hours and wages for officers.

The sheriff's marine unit has two boats designated to patrol the lake and Bonney Lake's unit has one boat. Two officers operate each boat.

Rafting parties are once again a paramount enforcement issue, as is speeding, alcohol abuse and noise violations.

"We intend to increase enforcement," Lawrence said. "If violators are spotted, a lot of tickets will be written. We encourage people to use the lake, but to keep it under control. There will be zero tolerance of violation on the water."

Bonney Lake marine officers will inspect boats at the Allan Yorke Park boat launch along with patrolling the lake.

"The officers will be checking for proper mufflers, equipment and licensing," McGehee said. "They will be giving warnings or write tickets."

Bonney Lake has six officers that have had 40 hours or more of marine services training.

Sgt. Tom Longtine is in charge of the unit for the city.

McGehee is also working with the Bonney Lake City Council to rewrite the city's noise ordinance.

"We need to fine tune it a little bit," McGehee said. "It's always been a misdemeanor, but it didn't cover 16 to 18 year olds. We want to change it to a civil infraction for boats and cars that will cover that age group. We still want an ordinance that is a misdemeanor to cover residential noise."

Dennis Box can be reached at dbox@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald.