On Friday, Twisp Mayor Hans Smith issued the following statement with regard to Jay King’s dismissal:
Because this is a sensitive personnel issue, I am not able to speak directly to all information that informed my decision to release Jay King from duty. I can say that it became clear to me that Mr. King was not going to be a good fit in our local law enforcement community, and that the decision to release Mr. King was made based on what was going to be best for Twisp moving forward.
While I’m frustrated that we were not ultimately able to get the Police Department on stable footing with Mr. King, I do think we’ve made reasonable progress on revitalizing our police department and I think Mr. King’s departure will ultimately help us continue to move forward towards offering a quality police force that is supported by our regional law enforcement agencies.
Hopefully the letter I provided to the public is helpful towards understanding what we are doing to move this department forward given this sudden setback.
