Washington’s push to get every officer through 40 hours of de‑escalation and mental‑health training is moving at a crawl, according to a new state performance audit. Roughly 14% of newly hired officers and about 16% of veteran officers have finished the full curriculum so far, and auditors warn that, at current rates, roughly half of the state’s sworn force could be out of compliance by Jan. 1, 2028. The report points to gaps in tracking, funding and scheduling, along with some resistance from officers, as the key reasons the rollout is lagging.
Audit finds gaps in rollout and tracking
According to a performance audit by the Office of the Washington State Auditor, the Law Enforcement Training and Community Safety Act requires a 40‑hour continuing curriculum that blends community and cultural awareness with hands‑on patrol tactics. The audit recommends stronger public reporting of compliance data, potential funding support for smaller agencies, and a legislative working group to pinpoint statute and policy changes that could improve compliance.
What the training looks like
The commission’s curriculum combines about 16 hours of mostly online community‑awareness coursework with roughly 24 hours of in‑person patrol‑tactics instruction. Those practical sessions are designed to teach officers alternatives to force and how to manage the pace of encounters. The Criminal Justice Training Commission’s course pages describe the patrol‑tactics in‑service and related instructor courses that agencies use to deliver those hours. That mix of online modules and daylong, hands‑on sessions is intended to reach both newer recruits and incumbent officers, but it also makes scheduling harder for already stretched departments.
Why agencies are behind
Auditors identified several practical hurdles that have slowed completion rates. Departments reported that the direct cost of training, along with the challenge of pulling officers off patrol, makes it difficult to schedule the 24‑hour in‑person modules. The commission’s tracking data are incomplete, and the train‑the‑trainer pipeline has struggled to gain momentum. The report also notes that some officers question how relevant the community‑awareness modules are to patrol work, and that uneven cooperation among agencies has complicated the statewide rollout, according to the Office of the Washington State Auditor.
Commission response and local reaction
As reported by The Seattle Times, the Criminal Justice Training Commission said it generally agrees with the audit’s findings and has started updating rules and guidance to improve tracking and scheduling. Community organizations and some lawmakers say the report underlines the need for clearer funding and enforcement, while police leaders point to staffing shortages and competing patrol demands at smaller agencies.
Legal clock: the 2028 deadline
The training requirement comes from Initiative 940 and is codified in state law. RCW 43.101.450 mandates violence de‑escalation training and sets timelines for both new and incumbent officers, with incumbent officers required to complete their first continuing‑education cycle by Jan. 1, 2028. That statutory deadline is the benchmark auditors used when projecting how many officers could be noncompliant if training rates do not pick up, according to Justia.
What comes next
Auditors are urging lawmakers, the training commission and community stakeholders to form a working group to sort out funding, tracking and enforcement questions, which could in turn unlock grants or statutory fixes and make it easier for smaller agencies to comply. The commission says it has expanded training capacity and is rolling out instructor courses along with new scheduling guidance. Even so, the audit makes clear the state will need both additional resources and a more defined compliance plan if it wants most officers to be fully certified by the 2028 deadline.
