I'm sure by now, that plenty of people have seen the story in The Olympian concerning the hiring of Chris Kimble, the son of Sheriff Dan Kimble. I have a few thoughts and would welcome the comments of others.

Through discussion with several law enforcement officers, representing different agencies, I've been told that there is no great supply of men or women wanting to enter the field. There are ongoing recruitment efforts, yet some candidates don't make it past the academy.

With this thought in mind, I come to the point of the Kimbles. I happen to know Dan personally and know that as a father he actually expressed a bit of reluctance to watch his son enter the department. Through experience, he knows that everyday an officer puts on a uniform, could be his last day on Earth, a frightening thought for any parent. Yet, I'm sure that Dan is proud to have his son follow in his footsteps, as many children have followed their parents into community service via the military, law enforcement, firefighting and others fields.

So, Chris qualified and was hired by the civil service board.

Moving on to the article - and I have addressed this with Vickie Kilgore of The Olympian, as well as others, I think to make a front page news article out of Chris' hiring (without so much of a mention as to the names of the other hirees) does nothing more than put a target on his back. It's not enough that he enters a field as a legacy, he now has the daily newspaper monitoring his employment. As a former newspaper employee, I can guarantee that there is plenty of nepotism within the corporations. I'll bet my bottom dollar there is more than one McClatchy working for the McClatchy Newspapers. I told Kilgore that I thought this was a "nothing" story.

Then came the comments thread. Anonymous readers being allowed to make false accusations. One reader posted the County personnel policy, although it doesn't apply in this issue. Not one post of rebuttle from The Olympian.

In most general cases, I find The Olympian to be a better than average small daily. In this case, I think they missed the boat entirely. If you want to report the hiring of seven new deputies, feel free (although something tells me if one of them isn't named "Kimble", not a reporter would surface).

So, the story of the day is that a local newspaper reports that a sheriff's deputy was qualified to be hired, was hired and because he is related to the Sheriff, dispite several layers of management between them, he has to tolerate being singled out.

I'm wondering if he performs and gets exemplary marks, will there be another front page story?

Your thoughts?