Pasco asks WA lawmakers for $1M to expand police training academy
Pasco is asking the Washington state Legislature for close to $1 million to upgrade Pasco’s Basic Law Enforcement Academy campus.
It benefits the entire state as one of the most in-demand police academies in Washington and the only one in Southeastern Washington.
The regional academy first began offering classes two years ago. Before 2023, officers-in-training would have to travel to the main academy in Burien.
If the city receives $972,000 it has requested in funding, improvements would include a new portable classroom so that the regional academy would be able to offer more classes. Plus there would be added security fencing and restroom renovations made.
Pasco Chief of Police Ken Roske told the Tri-City Herald that with an additional classroom, the academy could offer more short-term programs teaching deescalation, detective skills and domestic violence response, among other mandated trainings.
So far, the academy has had full classes with Pasco officers-in-training. There are 30 full-time students in classes offered twice a year over five months. All students are paid and receive benefits as Pasco Police Department employees, hired before starting at the academy.
Pasco’s 2026 legislative priorities
The request is just one of a handful that the city will make to local state legislators in December.
The legislative session coming up is short — Jan. 12 to March 12. Pasco also is asking the state to bring back a water banking grant program. If selected for this grant, the city would use the funds to purchase water rights.
Also on the 2025-26 wishlist: $35 million for the Road 76 Overpass, $3 million to analyze parts of Highway 12 from A Street to Tank Farm/Sacajawea Park Road and $80 million in low interest loans and grants to make improvements to the aging Butterfield Water Treatment Plant.
State lobbyist Briahna Murray told the Pasco City Council this week that the city is more likely to be successful getting a higher amount of funding for those larger projects in 2027, not during the short upcoming session. The state operates on a 2-year budget cycle, with supplemental funding prioritized in off years.
