Wash. governor approves $100M in public safety grants aiming to boost recruitment

Maddy Grassy/AP

By Simone Carter
The Bellingham Herald (Bellingham, Wash.)

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Gov. Bob Ferguson has been adamant from the start: He’d only sign a budget that includes $100 million in funding to help hire more police.

On Monday the Democrat celebrated a victory when he signed House Bill 2015 into law.

HB 2015 by state Rep. Debra Entenman , a Kent Democrat, creates a local law enforcement grant program that state lawmakers funded for $100 million in their final operating budget.

Ferguson noted at Monday’s bill signing ceremony — as he did in his inaugural address — that Washington ranks last nationwide in the number of law-enforcement officers per capita.

“That needs to change,” he said at the May 19 event in the Legislative Building’s State Reception Room .

Ferguson added that in addition to the grant money, HB 2015 ensures that officers receive best-practices training. And the new law gives communities the flexibility to prioritize public-safety programs that best suit their needs, he said.

Under HB 2015, cities and counties can get funding for new officer and co-response hires, as well as other public-safety aims, by two processes.

The first is a Criminal Justice Training Commission -administered, state-funded grant; cities must meet certain criteria to be eligible. The other option, the councilmanic sales tax, means that counties or cities can levy a new 0.1% sales and use tax without first needing voter approval, so long as eligibility requirements are met.

Grant money can be used to hire more peer counselors, behavioral health co-responders and corrections officers, plus training on crisis intervention, de-escalation and use of force.

The law gives priority to applying agencies that intend to use the grants to help cover co-response team costs, followed by those that already have such teams in place and are looking to bring in more law enforcement, as noted by the Association of Washington Cities .

June 30, 2028 is the grant program’s expiration date.

Candice Bock with the Association of Washington Cities spoke in strong support of the bill in February.

“We really think this addresses some of our concerns about having an ongoing and sustainable approach to funding public safety,” she said at a Feb. 24 public hearing.

‘Protect and serve’

During Ferguson’s inaugural address, he highlighted a different bill that sought to deliver $100 million for law enforcement. That legislation was sponsored by Republican state Sen. Jeff Holy of Cheney.

Asked Monday whether he would have preferred to see Holy’s version reach his desk, Ferguson replied: “We have a legislative process, and different folks have different ideas. I especially appreciate, though, Senator Holy just being supportive all the way through.”

Holy was one of five Senate Republicans to vote in favor of Entenman’s bill.

Ferguson added that the distance between ranking last and 49th for law enforcement officers per capita is “quite a ways,” but he thinks that HB 2015 will help.

The House Republican Caucus recently posted on social media that Democrats rejected Republican-introduced bills seeking to hire more officers without increasing local taxes. Last month, HB 2015 cleared the House 55-42 with only one Republican, state Rep. Rob Chase of Spokane Valley , voting in support.

And some Democrats encouraged the governor to broaden his public-safety focus outside of his $100-million-for-police-hiring goal.

The Legislative Black Caucus , for instance, wanted to see at least that much devoted to social services and other supportive programs, per the Washington State Standard. Its chair, state Rep. Kristine Reeves , a Federal Way Democrat, said Monday she didn’t think that all communities would opt to hire a cop. Rather the point of the bill, which she ultimately supported, was to empower them to decide what best works for their respective public-safety needs.

Entenman told reporters after the signing that she looks forward to the diversity and growth of law enforcement officers “who are trained in a culturally competent way.”

“So that anyone who comes in contact with law enforcement, whether it be in an emergency or unfortunately … an arrest, will come out alive, have their day in court and feel that that ‘protect and serve’ motto that we have in our minds for law enforcement is really applied equitably,” she said.

Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders said after the signing that he looks forward to seeing the law play out in his home jurisdiction.

“I think this is about the sentiment that it shows toward police officers on the street: that we recognize that we’re way far behind and we need to get caught up,” he said. “So I think that that in and of itself could lead to some improvement in morale.”

Editor’s Note : This article, orginially published May 10, 2025, has been updated to reflect new developments.

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