Facing shortages, WA expands police trainings and fronts the bill

The four-and-a-half-month course includes 720 classroom and training hours. Subjects include patrolling, psychology, field tactics, driving, communication and de-escalation skills, criminal law, serving court orders, searches and seizures, Miranda warnings, crime scene procedures, firearms training, control and defensive tactics, traffic training and other topics. 

The Center is trying to train police recruits in the greatest numbers possible because Washington is short on cops and deputies. In fact, Washington has the lowest ratio of law enforcement officers to civilians in the nation at 1.12 per 1,000 people, down from 1.23 in 2019, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. The national average is 2.3, according to the FBI.

Seattle’s police department did not respond to Cascade PBS’s request for current statistics. A March KING 5 television report said Seattle Police staffing is at a 30-year low, with 913 active officers and a need for 375 more. In 2022, when the City Council was considering hiring bonuses to attract more police recruits, the police department said it had lost nearly 400 officers since January 2020, hiring only 145 in that same timeframe. A national trend mirrors Seattle’s experience, with U.S. police departments losing officers to resignations and retirement far faster than they can hire replacements.

“I’ve heard such an outcry for public safety from constituents,” said Rep. Chris Stearns, D-Auburn, at a Jan. 16 hearing before the House Local Government Committee on his proposal to allow some cities to increase their sales taxes by a small fraction to help pay for police. House Bill 2211 did not go anywhere. 

“Safety staffing is at a crisis point for our state,” said Puyallup Police Chief Scott Engle at another Jan. 16 hearing on a similar measure, House Bill 2231. 

No one can intelligently speculate why Washington is dead last in police staffing. “I don’t know the answer. Every department is having the same problem statewide,” said Barbara Serrano, Gov. Jay Inslee’s policy advisor on public safety issues. 

But experts can generalize why officers are dropping out of the profession here and elsewhere.