CCJ Directory

Sue Rahr began her 33 year career with the King County Sheriff’s Office as a deputy in 1979 and for 25 years worked her way up through the ranks until she was elected Sheriff in 2005. She served as Sheriff for seven years, retiring in 2012. She was responsible for over 1,000 employees, a $150 million budget, contract police services for 12 cities, and transit policing for the Seattle/Puget Sound region. She led KCSO through successful CALEA National Accreditation in 2010 and was named 2010 Elected Official of the Year by the Municipal League. In April of 2012 she was appointed Executive Director of the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission. She is responsible for training all city and county law enforcement and corrections officers in the state, as well as many other criminal justice professionals.

She served as a member of the Executive Session on Policing at the Harvard Kennedy School from 2011 2014; served on the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing in 2015; is an Executive Fellow for the Police Foundation; and an advisor to the Law Enforcement Forecasting Group for the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

She has served on many non-profit community and professional boards and held the following offices: President – Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs; Commissioner – Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission; Executive Board – National Sheriffs Association.

She graduated Cum Laude with a BA in Criminal Justice from Washington State University and is a graduate of the National Sheriff’s Institute and the FBI National Executive Institute. She co-authored an academic paper about work being done at the WA State Criminal Justice Training Commission that was published in 2105 by the Harvard Kennedy School and the National Institute of Justice.