Former Poulsbo police clerk charged with stealing gun from evidence room

Kitsap Sun, kitsapsun.com
BYLINE: Josh Farley
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Poulsbo, WA

POULSBO — A former Poulsbo Police Department clerk has been charged by Kitsap County prosecutors for stealing a gun she was transporting for disposal as part of her job duties, according to documents filed in Kitsap County District Court.

Amanda M. Dixon, 22, was charged Monday with felony theft of a firearm, the result of an investigation by Kitsap County sheriff's detectives that began when her father found a gun when she was moving out of his house in early July, court documents said.

The gun was found to belong to a 2004 Poulsbo police case and Dixon was tasked with transporting it from the evidence room to a city shed for destruction, detectives wrote.

Dixon turned herself in to Kitsap County sheriff's detectives Friday, where she denied taking the gun. When detectives said the gun turned in was identical to the one she was to have taken to be destroyed, she said she had found the gun under her passenger seat and had thought it was another gun she'd taken for a friend for safekeeping.

Detectives said they found the friend had never given her weapons for safekeeping, however. She was booked into the Kitsap County jail on $100,000 bail, she was released on her own recognizance Monday.

Poulsbo Police Chief Dennis Swiney said Dixon had recently resigned due to personal issues. In June, she'd been arrested on another matter and ultimately resigned at that time, court documents said.

On July 6, her father turned in the gun as she was moving out of the house. Swiney called for an outside investigation given the possible conflict of interest involved, he said.

Swiney, Poulsbo's chief since 2007, said that the department strives to return property when possible. Evidence in current or unsolved cases is retained, but Swiney said the department has had a backlog of evidence waiting for destruction that the department is still purging. Firearms can either be melted down or rendered inoperable.

Swiney said the evidence room is in compliance with the department's policies and procedures, including the practice of having items documented and having an officer and department employee sign off when it is admitted and removed from evidence.

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