(The Center Square) – A $100 million grant program funded by Washington taxpayers in 2025 to boost law enforcement hiring and training has yet to be accessed by cities and counties across the state.
Some local officials and lawmakers are voicing frustration with the program, which was hailed by Gov. Bob Ferguson as part of the solution to address the fact that Washington is last in the nation for police staffing per capita.
“To date, I'm not aware of a single dollar that's been able to be accessed by any of our law enforcement agencies in the state of Washington. I mean, not a single dollar has been spent of that money, despite agencies that have critical needs,” Rep. Matt Marshall, R-Eatonville, told The Center Square.
There were concerns brought up about the legislation before its passage last year, including pushback from some cities that objected to being required to raise local sales taxes in order to receive grant funding.
The idea behind that was to sustain any new hires or programs funded by the grant, beyond the 2028 expiration of the program at the state level.
Derrick Nunnally, government relations advocate for the Association of Washington Cities, told The Center Square there have been some frustrations for members trying to access the funding.
“Our members are grateful that HB 2015 created multiple pathways to fund public safety, but this money can only improve safety in our communities if it’s available for those communities to use,” Nunnally said. “Going forward, the grants would be more accessible if cities that contract with other agencies to provide law enforcement services didn’t have to apply through that contracted agency.”
Nunnally added that cities that don’t want to impose the additional .1% sales tax, should have other options to generate revenue.
“Those cities could benefit if there were additional options for permanent funding solutions to boost safety, justice and law enforcement,” he said. “So, there’s still plenty of work to do.”
The Center Square asked Rep. Brian Burnett, R-Wenatchee, what he’s hearing from the law enforcement community about their frustrations. Burnett is the former sheriff in Chelan County.
“I was told just today by the governor’s office that there may be a couple of agencies that have finally been granted or at least approved for the money. But going back a couple months ago, I had chiefs reaching out to me saying, ‘What in the world's going on? What do we have to do to get this done?’ And they're really frustrated,” Burnett said.
He explained that even model agencies that already meet grant program requirement concerning department policies have not been able to access the money.
“Like with the city of Kent. It seems like in normal grant funding, you actually get awarded points when you already have certain policies in place, and you can prove that you've been doing these programs … but that was not the case with this funding mechanism,” Burnett said.
Given the crisis in police staffing, he said speeding up the process has to be a priority.
“Let’s put the grant funding and policy in place that doesn't make it difficult for the law enforcement agencies, because the whole point was to get that $100 million out there to be impactful, to be effective,” Burnett said. “We shouldn't be making it harder for our law enforcement leaders.”
The Criminal Justice Training Commission has put up new online portal for potential grant applicants.
“We are receiving and reviewing applications as we speak,” Criminal Justice Training Commission Communications Manager David Quinlan emailed The Center Square.
Marshall tried to get a budget proviso added to use $1 million from the $100 million law enforcement program for Lacey’s new police station and training facility.
“Currently there's a massive backlog for training new recruits, and there are long waiting times trying to get those recruits through the basic training academy,” he explained. “This is a turnkey ready solution that all we need to do is provide just over a million for operating expenses.”
The proviso and subsequent amendments he offered were rejected by majority party Democrats.
The Center Square reached out to the Governor’s Office for comment on the grant program delays but did not receive a response.
