'The God Squad' and its 'Firm Grip' on the Chelan County Sheriff's Office

Newly-released employee surveys paint a picture of a deeply divided agency and "a hostile working environment for anyone who doesn't drink the cool-aid or go to Grace City church."

A photo of members of “The God Squad” provided by Grace City Church at that baptism of Justin Kissel, who is featured in this video. Kissel (the man in the horse trough) is a former Wenatchee Police Department officer and now head of security at GCC.

In 2020 the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office sent out a series of surveys to its employees to gauge employee satisfaction. The results are interesting and somewhat concerning, to say the least. The responses paint a picture of a deeply divided law enforcement agency – one where an employee’s church affiliation seems to be very important to the success of one’s career.

The answers to the first prompt, which is “I would recommend CCSO to a friend as a place to work” are illuminating. Thirty-seven “sworn personnel” took the survey and about 30% strongly agreed they would recommend the agency to friends, about 25% agreed, 27% disagreed and about 20% strongly disagreed.

“When I started here, I was extremely proud to work here. Now when people ask me if they should apply, I tell them there are other agencies in the area that pay more and treat their employees fair,” one commissioned officer wrote. “This department has turned into a hostile working environment for anyone who doesn’t drink the cool-aid or go to Grace City Church. The PUD was sued because of this.”

The remark about the PUD is very interesting to me, and something I am following up on.

Other deputies were more brief with their criticisms:

• “The administration does not treat employees equally.”

• “This department is divided and has been for awhile and that is very sad.”

• “Not a good team environment.”

• “Admin is not consistent with their treatment of personnel.”

• “Lacks diversity in people and diversity of thought.”

Now all the responses were negative, however. Some deputies like the way the Sheriff’s Office is headed.

“I believe our future as an agency is bright and we are moving in the right direction,” one deputy wrote. “By continuing to bring in more quality people, that trajectory will continue.”

To the question “I feel valued at CCSO?” a deputy responded: “The certain select few always get what they want.”

It’s in response to this question that another deputy throws out a phrase that would be glib if it didn’t indicate something deeply concerning is going on within the agency. His response starts on page four and continues on page five:

“Certain people are given more opportunities than others. Once you’ve been used by this department and no longer of value to the department, they discard you like a piece of gum,” he wrote. “They would gladly put in a new employee who will be willing to work for less. The God squad has a firm grip on what direction this department is going.”

“My thoughts and values do not align with the select few.”

But it’s the responses to the third question, which is “Is the agency in compliance with its core values (Teamwork, Integrity, Excellence)” where a clearer picture of the dysfunction emerges.

Less than 6% of the officers strongly agreed with that statement. About 50% agreed and the rest, a total of 17 deputies, either disagreed or strongly disagreed. Concerns over the lack of “integrity” are repeated by multiple officers in their written responses.

“A deputy was stopped for DUI, twice and is now a potential supervisor.”

While the references to deputies committing “adultery” and being stopped for driving while under the influence are interesting peeks behind the curtain at the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office, one response highlights a level of paranoia and culture of mistrust of the public that should be genuinely concerning to the citizens of Chelan County.

“It is truly sad to watch this agency continue down a path that is going to continue to see senior deputies leave and new deputies taught this culture of treating people like everyone wants to kill us and they are the enemy,” one deputy wrote. “A prime example of this is the west deputies at night putting up garbage bags in the window because they believe a sniper may shoot them. This is really happening. This is the culture we are teaching deputies. The public is the enemy and want to shoot you through the window.”

---

These are all responses from just the first three questions, and rather than writing one exhaustively long post going through the surveys (there are two) I am going to break up this coverage into a series of posts. So look for more on this topic in the future.

I’d like to thank the graphic designers at Grace City Church for putting together that photo featuring Justin Kissel’s horse trough baptism clearly identifying some members of “The God squad.” It’s not only a great feature photo for this post, but it also gives me another resource to identify local law enforcement officers who are GCC followers and do my homework on each of them. To that end, I have already put in an additional public records request to learn more about what exactly happened to Reefer the drug dog, who was run over and killed by Dep. Carlos Rodriguez while on duty in March 2016.

After that incident Undersheriff Jason Mathews was not forthcoming with the fact that it was Rodriguez in his patrol car who ran the dog over. I am interested in knowing more about the incident and why the Sheriff’s Department was trying to obfuscate it.

The last thing I will address are a few questions I commonly get, which are: “How did you know about this stuff. Who are your sources?”

My answer is always a variation of: “There are still plenty of good cops in this community, and some of them are concerned about the influence Grace City Church has on local law enforcement agencies. And I find out about this stuff because I keep my ears open and don’t burn my sources.”

So if you are reading this and you have any information you think the public should know about the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office, Grace City Church, or anything else that affects the citizens and taxpayers of Central Washington feel free to reach out to me.