OLYMPIA — A proposal to allocate money to help hire additional law enforcement officers would address one part of a complex challenge — but recruiting isn’t necessarily the biggest challenge for Columbia Basin law enforcement agencies. That was the reaction of local law enforcement agencies to the proposed legislation.
Senate Bill 5060 is sponsored by Senators Jeff Holy (R-Spokane) and Manka Dhingra (D-Redmond) and would allocate up to $100 million to help agencies statewide to hire additional officers. The grants would provide 75% of the cost of an entry-level salary for three years. The local agency would provide the remaining 25%, and that, said Adams County Sheriff Dale Wagner, is where the challenge comes in.
“For small agencies like (ACSO), that just doesn’t work for us because we can’t do the 25% match, because our funding is not there to hire anybody,” Wagner said. “And after three years you have to (fund) the whole thing. So, it’s really a struggle for smaller communities.”…