Latest news with #SenateBill5060
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
$100M plan for police hiring gets greenlight from Washington House
The Washington state Capitol on Nov. 11, 2024. (Bill Lucia/Washington State Standard) Democrats in the Washington state House on Tuesday approved a revamped plan to provide $100 million in grants to local police departments to hire more officers. The vote on House Bill 2015 gets lawmakers one step closer to accomplishing a core wish of Gov. Bob Ferguson, who has said he would veto a budget that doesn't include the money for new cops. Washington ranks last in the country in police staffing per capita, a statistic Ferguson and others have pointed to in making the case for the funding. In addition to creating the state grant program, the bill offers a new path for local governments to adopt a 0.1% sales tax without voter approval to pay for criminal justice expenses. The measure aims to strike a balance by allowing for spending on more than just police hiring. Some Democrats are skeptical that adding cops is the best path to improve public safety. Crisis intervention training and other areas, like emergency management planning and community assistance programs, are among the additional spending options. The local sales tax revenue could go toward costs such as public defenders, domestic violence services, and programs to help connect formerly incarcerated people with jobs. 'I think that this is a compromise for me, because when I came to this Legislature, I was concerned about the number of police officers that we had in the community and the increased call for more law enforcement officers in their community,' said Rep. Debra Entenman, D-Kent. 'For me, there wasn't enough community support, community resources and a different way of thinking about policing,' added Entenman, the bill's lead sponsor. Passage of the House legislation could signal an approaching conflict with the Senate. A bill awaiting a floor vote on the other side of the rotunda proposed the $100 million for state grants, but not the 0.1% sales tax. However, amendments made to the House bill do align it closer to the competing proposal, Senate Bill 5060. Most bills face a Wednesday deadline to pass out of their chamber of origin. In floor action Tuesday, House lawmakers nixed a requirement in their bill that local governments implement the new sales tax to qualify for a piece of the $100 million in grants from the state Criminal Justice Training Commission. Instead, cities and counties can access the money if they've already imposed either of two existing public safety sales taxes. Lawmakers also decided governments can't impose the new tax if voters have rejected a similar tax proposal in the past two years. The bill sets other criteria for qualifying for grant dollars. For example, 25% of officers would have to complete a 40-hour crisis intervention training. The bill originally set this benchmark at 80%. Other hurdles departments must clear to access the money include implementing model policies on use-of-force and other issues, completing trauma-informed training for all officers and complying with a law that restricts police from helping with federal immigration enforcement. The latest bill also strips out language that would have allowed for grant funding to be used for bonuses to newly recruited officers. Democrats turned down Republican amendments to require voter approval of the new local tax and to focus the revenue from the tax specifically on hiring police officers. Republicans uniformly opposed Entenman's bill, arguing the sales tax would fall disproportionately on lower earners and provide little money to fund new officers in smaller communities. The bill passed on a 54-42 vote. Five Democrats joined Republicans against it. 'I don't doubt that we have other aspects of the criminal justice system that could benefit from some additional funding, but to do that is to not put new officers on the street,' said Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama. Orcutt also argued that the bill leaves open the possibility for local governments to tap the new funds and then shift existing dollars out of police budgets. If lawmakers don't include $100 million for the state grants in the next two-year budget, the entire bill will be null and void. Also on Tuesday, legislators in the state Senate gave the go-ahead on a measure dealing with existing sales taxes for public safety and criminal justice. Senate Bill 5775 expands how the tax dollars can be spent, including for diversion programs to keep people out of jail and prison and mental health and addiction services.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Washington has too few police officers. This proposal could help cut the crime rate
Crime continues to be a growing problem in many communities throughout our state. In fact, according to more than one national crime website, Washington ranks in the top five in the overall crime rate among states. Washington ranks among the worst states in several categories, including murders, auto theft and retail theft. A key reason is that we also rank 51st nationally — dead last — for the number of law-enforcement officers per capita. It should come as no surprise that the number of law-enforcement officers in Washington has not kept pace with its growing population. This chronic shortage of officers in our state has created major consequences for public safety, such as reduced capacity for crime prevention, delayed justice for victims and reduced effectiveness in trying to de-escalate crime incidents. As a retired police officer, I know we need more officers in our communities and on our roads. That is why I have reintroduced a bill this year to increase public safety by increasing the number of law-enforcement officers in Washington communities. The bipartisan bill is co-sponsored by 12 other senators, including Sen. Manka Dhingra, who as chair of the Law and Justice Committee is my Democratic counterpart on that panel. Senate Bill 5060 would have the state Criminal Justice Training Commission develop and implement a grant program to help local and tribal governments hire law-enforcement officers. A $100 million appropriation from the state general fund would support the grant program. SB 5060 also would require the CJTC to establish policies for grant applications from local agencies, including review criteria and reporting requirements from local governments, and annually report on the grant program's utilization, application and hiring data. The bill was passed earlier this session by the Senate Law and Justice Committee following a public hearing. It now awaits a vote from the Senate Ways and Means Committee, where it received a public hearing on Feb. 3. Those public hearings attracted strong testimony from proponents ranging from Spokane Valley City Councilmember Rod Higgins to officials with the governor's office, the city of Tacoma, the Association of Washington Cities and the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. With this bill, the supporters said, we can move closer to a shared goal of a safer Washington. One pointed out the bill will help defray the costs of hiring new officers, which in turn responds to what another backer noted: how law-enforcement agencies need more staffing if they are to respond to public calls for service in minutes rather than hours. Another bill supporter told legislators that Washington's per-capita rate of law-enforcement officers has not only been the nation's lowest for 14 years, it also hasn't been this low in our state since 1980. Just to match the nation's second-lowest officer per capita rate, Washington would need to hire an additional 1,370 officers. I've introduced this bill in past sessions only to see it fall short, but I am more optimistic this time around. During his inaugural address to legislators in January, Gov. Bob Ferguson said he would not sign a new operating budget if it did not provide the $100 million in funding for this program. It is encouraging that he has publicly supported this bill, especially since his predecessor, Jay Inslee, would not. The new governor not only understands the need to increase the number of law-enforcement officers in our state, but he also believes the best route is through this proposed grant program. Sen. Jeff Holy, R-Cheney, serves the 6th Legislative District. He is ranking Republican on the Senate Law and Justice Committee.
