(The Center Square) – House lawmakers advanced a proposal Thursday to provide additional police funding to the cities of Lakewood and Medical Lake for hosting Washington’s two psychiatric hospitals.
Senate Bill 5286 cleared the state Senate with unanimous support last winter but stalled in the House.
The Senate passed it unanimously again earlier this month, sending it to the House Community Safety Committee, which advanced SB 5286 on Thursday with a do-pass recommendation. House lawmakers have less than a month to send it to the floor for a vote before the 2026 session ends on March 12.
“We unfortunately had a situation in my district where somebody was killed. It was a terrible, terrible situation,” Rep. Jenny Graham, R-Spokane, said Thursday. “I’m happy that we here can do something to try to make sure that that doesn’t happen again, whether it’s on the east side or west side.”
Graham serves as the ranking member on the committee and also represents Medical Lake’s district. Last September, a man shot and killed an Eastern State Hospital security guard in the parking lot before exchanging gunfire with the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, according to several media reports.
She said the Eastern State Hospital and Western State Hospital put the communities at increased risk.
Both facilities primarily serve patients committed through the Involuntary Treatment Act or committed due to findings of criminal insanity. Taxpayers already support a state-funded “community partnership” policing program for both cities in the 2025-27 budget; SB 5286 just puts that obligation into statute.
The proposal would formalize the relationship between the Department of Social and Health Services and the two cities while requiring the state to provide annual funding rather than relying on requests.
Lakewood Mayor Paul Bocchi testified during a public hearing for the proposal on Wednesday. He told the committee that Western State Hospital creates “unique public safety challenges.” His city launched a community policing program in 2007, which reduced police calls to the psychiatric hospital by 40%.
“The program assigns dedicated officers who provide specialized response, reporting and investigative services beyond standard patrol while proactively addressing safety concerns at the hospital,” he said.
The state has funded the program in the last ten biennial budgets — Bocchi says it’s proven its worth.
Sen. Jeff Holy, R-Spokane, proposed SB 5286 last year and amended it heading into the 2026 session to include a $750,000 limit per biennium for both jurisdictions. He told the committee on Wednesday that he “took a hint” after it stalled last session as the state grapples with multi-billion-dollar deficits.
State spending has more than doubled since 2015, and the Democratic majority signed the largest tax hike in state history last year to fill that gap. Holy told the committee that his proposed spending cap in SB 5286 will ensure that the Legislature can compartmentalize these programs and limit spending.
The 2025-27 budget already provides $320,000 to each community partnership between Medical Lake and Lakewood, and to their respective facilities, with another $45,000 for Lakewood for police services at the hospital and surrounding areas, and another $25,000 to Medical Lake for those same purposes.
Medical Lake Mayor Terri Cooper also testified Wednesday, noting that her community has hosted the Eastern State Hospital for 135 years. She said her community started a program based on Lakewood’s in 2023, which has received funding in the last two budgets. Cooper now wants that codified in law.
“Support the work that’s already being done,” Cooper said, “Just put that into statute so we don’t have to continue to come back and ask again and again for this very worthwhile funding and program.”
