‘$100M for 68 officers?’: Jake rips Bob Ferguson’s police hiring results

Washington Governor Bob Ferguson campaigned on hiring more law enforcement officers through a $100 million grant, but roughly one year into his first term, the entire state has seen a net gain of 68 officers.

Jake Skorheim and Spike O’Neill, co-hosts of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, discussed the extensive requirements needed for law enforcement agencies to be approved for the funding, as only nine of 300 agencies have been approved.

“There are quite a few hurdles in order for these local jurisdictions to apply for the finances to hire new police officers, which are hugely needed across all of Washington,” Jake said. “That was a big part of [Ferguson’s] campaign. It’s a year later, he’s got his $100 million, and how many new law enforcement officers has he hired? 68.”

Ferguson campaigns on need for more officers as WA ranks last

Ferguson, during his campaign, stated that Washington being dead last in officers per capita was “unacceptable” and he would “fix it,” but Jake questioned why there has been minimal progress since he took office.

“They sign the budget, they get the funding, and to date, the entire state has seen a net gain of 68 officers,” Jake said. “If I were to give you $100 million a year ago, and I said, ‘How fast could you hire 200 officers?’ I bet you could do it pretty quickly, don’t you?”

“There’s an old equation that you can have things either good, fast, or cheap. You get two of the three, but not all of the three,” Spike responded. “Could I hire more officers if I had $100 million worth of grants to designate to various law enforcement communities? I would hope that I can. It doesn’t seem like a hard task to get. It seems like a pretty easy thing to accomplish.”

Jake, Spike question who is to blame for WA’s poor police hiring

Spike asked whether the blame for poor law enforcement hiring should be cast on Ferguson or whether the finger could be pointed at the agencies themselves.

“Is that on the governor or this policy, or is that on the law enforcement agency?” Spike asked.

“It’s on Bob Ferguson,” Jake responded. “Because he ran on it and he didn’t fix it. They’ve hired nobody; they hired 68 officers.”

Spike argued the blame should be cast on the agencies due to their inability to meet the compliance requirements to get the grants, but Jake questioned that logic.

“So all of the agencies in Washington State that run our police, who run our sheriff’s offices, they’re in the wrong?” Jake asked.

“If they can’t meet these requirements and find and hire enough, yeah, I think that’s on them,” Spike replied. “I don’t think the standard is the problem. If a coach teaches the guy how to block and tackle and goes out on the field and he can’t block or tackle, is that on the coach, or is that on the player?”

“It sounds like bad coaching and a kid who maybe doesn’t have a future in the NFL,” Jake responded.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.