The Washington Senate has unanimously passed legislation that would fully fund the training costs for law enforcement officers.
Sponsored by Sen. Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah, Senate Bill 6242 would increase the portion of funding the state provides for law enforcement training from 75% to 100%. Currently, local law enforcement agencies are required to reimburse 25% of training costs to the Criminal Justice Training Center.
“This seems like a great idea to make it easier to get cops on the streets and to save our local governments some money,” Mullet said in a statement. “We want more police and we want them to be well-trained so they can do a good job of keeping our communities safe. This bill is a part of our broader work on police training — we’ve funded the construction of regional training centers across Washington, so recruits can get trained closer to home, and we’ve worked to increase recruitment and pay for our state troopers too. The fact is, we need to fund the police — and Washington state is moving in the right direction.”
According to committee testimony, it currently costs an agency just under $5,000 to send a recruit to training.
The bill will now go to the House of Representatives.
