My name is Rick Felici.  I was born and raised in central New York state but Washington state has been my home since I discovered the beauty of the Pacific Northwest when the United States Navy brought me here in 1984.  

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My wife Monica and I have been married for almost 28 years now and have two daughters, a grandson, and a newborn granddaughter. We live South of Coupeville with our goofy dog Gus.  

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My career in law enforcement started in the Navy; I worked as NAS Whidbey Security Police where I served as a patrol officer, a watch commander, and a SWAT team member.  During part of this time I was also a Reserve Officer with the Oak Harbor Police Department.

 

My career with Island County Sheriff's Office began in 1994 when I started as a patrol deputy on Camano Island. In 2001, my family was called back to New York to help with some family commitments, and I lined up work with US Customs.  However life and this country changed drastically shortly after our arrival in New York with the terrorist attacks on 9/11.  The job with US Customs no longer existed and I was fortunate to have an opportunity to work as a corrections deputy at Cortland County Jail where I gained valuable insight and experience in corrections. Whidbey called us back after a couple years.  I was re-hired by Island County Sheriff's Office in 2003 and I have since served in various positions where I gained valuable insight and experience and a broad perspective of criminal justice issues in Island County.

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I have worked as a patrol deputy on both Whidbey and Camano Islands, a detective, a precinct Sergeant, the Detective Sergeant, and as the Chief Criminal Deputy.  Having served in all these functions gave me a broad understanding of how the Sheriff's Office was run and provided me the experience needed to even consider running for Sheriff in 2018.  

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Since being elected as Sheriff in 2018, I've worked with the county commissioners to add budgeted positions for commissioned deputies, bringing the number from 39 to 43. We have added corrections staff to include control room operators, in effort to leverage our existing resources to the best advantage. 

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We continued to run a safe and effective Office during a worldwide pandemic. We implemented embedded mental health and opioid outreach with deputies. We added to our less lethal force options and ensured deputies had the appropriate training to utilize these tools.  We implemented safety and accountability measures that decreased deputy-involved collisions, making our community safer and making the Sheriff's Office more fiscally responsible.

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I would be honored to have the opportunity to continue to expand and improve the level of service provided by the Island County Sheriff's Office. With your support, I will work to increase staffing to make a safer environment for our deputies and community, continue with the newly implemented programs that are proving helpful in battling some of the issues we have today, and do everything I can to best serve my community. The Sheriff's Office works for you!