‘Police are not a high priority for them’: Jake questions lack of police hiring from $100M grant

Included in Washington Governor Bob Ferguson’s budget agenda is a $100 million grant for police hiring, though it has not been used effectively, as zero new officers have been hired.

Jake Skorheim and Spike O’Neill, co-hosts of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, pointed to the lack of hiring numbers as a result of lawmakers viewing law enforcement as a low priority.

“To me, it feels more like the police are not a high priority for them,” Jake said. “Let’s say you’re a county like Whatcom County, not giant, but not small, and you want to hire more cops, and you’re emailing, and you’re trying to request things, for them to not respond for months. That’s horrifying.”

Whatcom County administrator calls grant process ‘very frustrating’

Jake highlighted a statement from a Whatcom County city administrator, John Williams, who said the entire process is very frustrating, with zero guidance through the process and many unanswered questions.

“It took months to get answers just to the city’s questions on how to even get through this process,” Jake said. “To me, it seems like, again, one of those political promises that maybe looks good on paper, but if you’re not going to actually do it, then it doesn’t seem like their priority is police, because they hired zero.”

Spike noted that the funds could have potentially been used elsewhere, across other programs, rather than directed toward bolstering a law enforcement department’s staff.

“So far, no cops have been hired. The funds can be used for other things: emergency management planning, training, assistance programs, mental health crisis responders, the CARE bears, all part of these grants,” Spike said.

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.