King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci wants to use a portion of new sales tax revenue to form a retail theft task force in an effort to reduce crime at stores such as Fred Meyer, which is closing county locations in Kent, Redmond and Seattle.
Balducci plans to propose the measure as part of the county’s 2026 budget discussions this fall with a goal of starting the task force in January 2026. The task force would include two King County Sheriff’s Office detectives and a prosecutor from the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. She estimated the cost at $600,000 per year.
“It would be a permanent retail crime task force to address the causes of retail theft. …with the goal to dramatically reduce retail theft in King County,” Balducci said during a Thursday, Aug. 21 press conference in Kent outside the Maleng Regional Justice Center…