OLYMPIA — Snohomish County could be home to the newest regional training academy for police by the end of the year.
It would be the fifth academy in the state. Adding an extra location will help clear a backlog of new officers waiting to receive training, said Monica Alexander, the executive director of the state’s Criminal Justice Training Commission.
In the state Senate’s proposed supplemental budget, legislators allocated more than $1.5 million to help the commission expand its basic law enforcement academy program to Snohomish County.
The Senate has until March 7 to reconcile its budget with the House’s proposed budget and pass it.
The state Department of Enterprise Services is leading the search for a location in Snohomish County on behalf of the training commission. The exact site is yet to be determined, a department spokesperson said.
Early in the search, the department considered locations in Skagit County, Alexander said. Now the search has narrowed to a location in Arlington, she said. Alexander was unable to provide any further details on the exact site.
Washington’s rate of police officers per capita is far lower than the national average. For every 100,000 residents, Washington has 121 police officers, compared to the national average of 240.
Entry-level police officers must go through the 720-hour academy program after getting hired by a law enforcement agency. Each class has capacity for 36 students.
The goal, Alexander said, is for new hires to enter training within 30 to 45 days of being hired.
For the Marysville Police Department, the wait is about six months, Chief Erik Scairpon said.
“I think that’s unreasonable, and this is part of the solution for that,” Alexander said.
Scairpon believes an academy in Northwest Washington is the “last piece of the basic law enforcement training puzzle.”
Despite an exact location not confirmed, Alexander is confident the Snohomish County academy could hold a class by the end of the year.
The other academies are in Burien, Pasco, Spokane and Vancouver, which held its first class in February.
Alexander said the goal is to put academies where people could go home in the evening after training.
“Meet them where they are, instead of insisting that everybody comes to us,” she said.
With more locations, the academies are able to serve more people conveniently, including candidates that wouldn’t normally be attracted to police work, Alexander said.
“The quicker we can get our new officers trained,” Scairpon wrote in an email, “the better staffing will be in Marysville and across the state.”
Jenelle Baumbach: 360-352-8623; jenelle.baumbach@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @jenelleclar.
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