(The Center Square) – Elected officials and law enforcement leaders celebrated the soft opening of a new law enforcement training academy in Arlington, Wash., part of a plan to deal with a backlog of police recruits who need to be trained in a state short on cops.
“We need more law enforcement officers in the state of Washington,” Gov. Jay Inslee said at the Tuesday afternoon event. “We need them on our streets, we need them in our forensic labs, we need them throughout the law enforcement community both city, counties and state.”
The new Arlington facility is expected to be fully open in February 2025. It will be one of five academies in the state.
Arlington’s law enforcement training center will be the state’s third regional training center in the last two years, following the opening of training centers in Pasco in 2023 and Vancouver in January.
The state also has a training center in Spokane and a training center in Burien, which had been the sole such facility in Washington.
The expansion of law enforcement training academies will allow more recruits to train where they live. This is part of a plan to deal with what had been a backlog of recruits at the state’s only Basic Law Enforcement Academy in Burien.
“Last year at this time, we were at [an] eight- to 12-month wait to get into the academy,” Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission Executive Director Monica Alexander said. “Today, we’re at 30 days or less.”
Sen. John Lovick, D-Mill Creek, a former Washington State Patrol trooper, helped secure funding for the Arlington academy.
This legislative session, lawmakers allocated more than $1.5 million for the new Snohomish County facility.
“The women and men training at our regional academies represent a diverse, new, generation of policing,” Lovick said.
Later, he went on to say, “When we decided to train peace officers locally and have them stay and serve in their communities, we went past the finish line. In 18 months, we have not opened one, not two, but three regional law enforcement training academies in Washington and we’re not finished yet, let’s build more.”
The additional training facilities come at a time when Washington is having trouble filling police officer positions.
According to a report put out this summer by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, Washington ranks last in the nation for law enforcement staffing.
The 2023 per capita rate of officers fell to 1.35 per thousand statewide, which the WASPC report said is the lowest rate ever recorded for Washington. WASPC noted the national per capita average for law enforcement officers is 2.31.
According to the WSCJTC, the Arlington training center – what Alexander called the “gold standard facility” – will feature a “state-of-the-art curriculum” that will be the first in the nation to have a national-level reach. The curriculum will focus on innovative training, standards, and officer certification.
