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OLYMPIA, Wash. - During his run for governor, Bob Ferguson made public safety a top priority.
In a campaign ad, Ferguson said: "Washington has the lowest number of officers per capita of any state. That's unacceptable. As governor, I’ll fix it."
In a 2024 interview with FOX 13, Ferguson vowed to get $100 million in funding to hire more officers.
Bob Ferguson's campaign ad.
As governor in 2025, Ferguson secured the funds in the legislative session. Now, more than a year later, FOX 13 is following up on the results.
WA has money for police, but where are they?
"So, we're actually going in the wrong direction," Steve Strachan of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs said.
Strahan says the state saw a net gain of 68 officers last year. However, when you factor in population growth, Washington’s police per capita rate fell even deeper into dead last.
According to Strachan, the $100 million grant program came with lots of strings attached and a long list of requirements designed in the bill by lawmakers.
"There was some expectation of, sort of, quick action and increased hiring. What we've seen is departments having to jump through a lot of hoops which were designed in the bill," Strahan said.
There are nearly a dozen requirements for the funding, including:
- Use of force data collection and reporting
- Proving local officers won’t assist in immigration enforcement
- Compliance on firearm relinquishment pursuant to court orders
- Training on gender-based violence cases
- Extra training for officers in violence de-escalation and crisis intervention
WA law enforcement rep says training, grants ties up police hiring
Strachan says the process is convoluted and complex.
In some cases, requiring training that goes above and beyond what is already required by state law. This has been especially difficult for smaller departments.
"If somebody calls 911 at three in the morning because somebody is kicking in their back door. You can't say, ‘Well, I'm sorry. We have, you know, everybody's out of town for mandated training,’" Strachan said.
Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders is among the frustrated, saying it would essentially take a deputy to work full-time to decipher the compliance rules and do the paperwork to apply for the grant.
"I mean, it is not an easy task to sit here and say we're going to revamp our entire agency to get access to this money," Sanders said.
Few dozen officers hired under Gov. Ferguson
The grants are being administered by the Criminal Justice Training Commission. Out of around 300 law enforcement agencies in Washington, 31 have applied for grants so far. Nine of those applications have been approved, funding a total of 45 new officers.
The reality, the state needs to hire thousands more to even get to the median officer per capita. Right now, there are around 11,000 officers statewide.
"I mean, it's an eye-watering number," Strachan said.
So far, the grant program has dished out $12.6 million from the $100 million pot.
"Calling it a drop in the bucket would be a generous read. It is nowhere near the level of need that our counties have just this last year," said Derek Young, Executive Director of the Washington State Association of Counties.
Young says many county budgets are in crisis, and new hires require new revenue. To access the grant, cities and counties must already have or implement a sales tax increase of 0.1%, dedicated to public safety, to help pay for those new officers long-term.
"That is another challenge is you have to be willing to increase taxes at a time when, the legislature is increasing taxes and other places," Young said.
Both Young and Strachan credit Governor Ferguson for making police hiring a priority but say the current strategy is bogged down by bureaucracy. The same kind of red tape that Ferguson vowed to cut back on during the campaign trail in 2024.
"Our record is pretty clear. My platforms are pretty clear — number one, we need to make government accountable directly to the people. Eliminate the bureaucracy," Ferguson said.
FOX 13 reached out to the governor's office about the challenges to the grant program, but the office never got back to us.
The Attorney General's Office, which helped implement the grant program, did respond to our request.
A spokesperson stated: "It has been less than a year since the statute went into effect, and in that time, CJTC has built a grant program from scratch and begun issuing awards to qualifying jurisdictions across the state. Our office looks forward to continuing to support CJTC in its efforts to support local law enforcement, promote public safety, and ensure compliance with state law."
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The Source: Information in this story comes from original reporting by FOX 13 Seattle anchor Hana Kim.