OLYMPIA – With this season’s legislative session in full swing, although on virtual platforms, lawmakers are processing bills and Representative Jenny Graham (R-Spokane) recently spoke about her support for some of the potential bills to fund law enforcement agencies.
House Bill 1787 which Graham co-sponsors went through a first reading on January 10, and looks to “provide funding for the recruitment, retention, and support of law enforcement officers,” as stated in the bill.
“The criminal justice training commission in conjunction with the Washington association of sheriffs and police chiefs must develop, implement, and expand programs for law enforcement professional development outreach, retention, and support for the purpose of encouraging more candidates to seek and retain careers in local law enforcement,” the bill says.
HB 1787 continues by stating the funds will be used to educate the public about the opportunities and challenges associated with a career in law enforcement.
The bill also states that it will benefit multiple law enforcement platforms such as municipal police, county sheriff’s state troopers, and even fish and wildlife officers.
The bill says the $2,740,000 will be allocated to “the criminal justice training commission for the Washington association of sheriffs and police chiefs” that will come from the state’s general fund to help develop and expand programs. This is appropriated for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022.
According to the bill another $2,250,000 will go to the training commission to fund sign-on bonuses for newly hired officers.
$56,155,000 will be used by the commission for retention bonuses for existing officers, and $24,660,000 will be allocated to help with the purchase of technologies such as body cams.
Another $3,700,000 will be utilized to fund any costs for the basic law enforcement academy for fiscal year 2022 and again in 2023.
Other funds will specifically be used for the fiscal year ending in June of 2023 including $150,000 to be used specifically for “funding the production of reports by the Washington association of sheriffs and police chiefs on the funding and staffing levels of local law enforcement agencies.”
Another $150,000 will be for “funding the report on recruitment and law enforcement retention.”
$100,000 will be allocated to the Washington State Patrol to develop a recruitment program, and $540,000 will be used to develop a new hire program according to section eight in the bill.
Retention bonuses for the state patrol will be funded by a $2.75 million allocation, and a total of $1.1 million will go to the Department of Fish and Wildlife to develop and implement programs and for retention bonuses.
Rep. Graham said these bills are becoming more important because a lot of the older officers in various platforms of law enforcement are getting to retirement age, and it has become increasingly difficult for various agencies to gain career interest.
She said Washington state ranks last in the United States for officers per capita, and the issue is getting worse.
Airway Heights Police Chief Brad Richmond said they have had a very tough time finding interested candidates as well, and part of the reason is that his department “doesn’t get adequate funding to offer bonuses like larger municipalities.”
He said the smaller departments lose candidates to the larger cities because the larger departments simply can offer more. Richmond also said one issue with Airway Heights is the “city is going through exponential growth and that calls for service have increased by 6,000 calls in two years.”
Richmond had asked Airway Heights city council to include some funding to hire new officers in this year’s budget, but those requests were all dropped during a council meeting earlier this month.
The police chief said he has very hard-working officers, but each officer can only do so much. He said not being able to have any budget requests approved is putting his department under a considerable amount of stress.
Rep. Graham spoke to an audience in Airway Heights on January 22, and said several factors are influencing the overall topic.
She spoke about how some recent legislation has made it more difficult for officers to effectively do their jobs and said, “they took the cuffs off of the criminals and put them on the officers.”
Graham also said in many cases criminals are not held accountable for their actions and stated, “in a risk versus reward mindset the criminals don’t see as much risk when committing crimes as they did before.”
Facility overcrowding is a concern as well, because sometimes the jails just doesn’t have space for people convicted of less serious crimes.
Graham said other legislation can possibly hurt law enforcement such as House Bill 1202 which she argues will be detrimental to law enforcement across the state.
She said HB 1202 aims to remove qualified immunity from law enforcement officers, and that could lead to officers leaving jobs in an already understaffed market.
Graham said she feels public safety is the absolute number one issue in our communities and that residents can contribute by researching bills and taking part in the legislative process.
Matthew can be reached at reporter2@cheneyfreepress.com
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