OLYMPIA – Rep. Shelley Kloba, D-Kirkland, has introduced a bill, House Bill 1253, to get new police recruits into training faster than what is currently required by state law. The bill had its first hearing in the Public Safety Committee on Monday.
“Our residents want community policing and adequate staffing levels. The current waiting time for recruit training diminishes that ability,” said Kloba.
“Washington’s law enforcement agencies have struggled, for more than a decade, with excessive wait times getting a recruit into the academy,” said Steve Strachan, the executive director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. HB 1253 reduces the window of time between the hire-date and the first day of training for police officers from six months to two months. These four months of time savings will greatly affect law enforcement throughout Washington state, and should greatly improve the efficiency of police departments
James McMahan, the policy director for WASPC, noted at Monday’s hearing for HB 1253, “Beginning the training within six months of the date of hire puts us at well over a year, in the best case scenario, when one of our new hires can actually be a full functioning police officer.” A police recruit is required to attend six months of basic law enforcement academy training, which is then followed up by four months in a field training program. Once all of this training is completed, they are then ready to work as a fully functional part of their police department.
This bill also brings financial savings for municipalities and agencies across the state. Kloba noted, “Agencies will be saving four months of a recruit’s salary that would have been spent on them doing simple administrative duties. Making this money available for the higher priority needs of our law enforcement agencies is not something to be overlooked.”
This change comes at a very important time for our state. Testimony heard on Monday suggests that within the next three years a large portion of the current police force throughout Washington state will be eligible for retirement. This means that there will likely soon be a very high rate of turnover for police officers, and departments will be stressed by the lack of personnel they face while training new recruits.
The decreased number of available police officers in the departments can cause officers to work more days in a row and for long periods of time. McMahan noted at the bill’s hearing that these conditions could cause officers to make less than ideal decisions. Rep. Kloba hopes that her bill will help reduce these issues and bring greater efficiency to the law enforcement agencies of Washington. “This is a great opportunity for us to show Washington’s law enforcement community that we care and we are listening to their concerns,” said Kloba.
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