Spokane County Sheriff's Office receives federal World Cup funding to bolster security

May 20-The Spokane County Sheriff's Office will receive a federal cash infusion to help cover security costs associated with being a World Cup host city.

The Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to accept $726,000 made available by the Department of Homeland Security ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The funding will be used to cover equipment and staffing expenses as the region hosts Egypt's national team this summer.

Spokane County Undersheriff Kevin Richey said in briefings to the commissioners that the funding will be used to purchase a long range acoustic device, a sniper platform for a county helicopter and a robot that resembles a dog to assist the explosives unit. The money also will help cover overtime costs for deputies working in Seattle and Spokane, as well as the costs for a deputy to take Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems training to better fend off threats from drones.

"It's a great opportunity to enhance our service and to purchase this equipment," Richey said. "And also to expose the deputies and the supervisors to a very large scale event in Seattle and here in Spokane."

The sheriff's office will retain possession of the equipment even after the games are over, Richey said.

He noted that the long range acoustic device, commonly referred to as a "sound cannon" for emitting an unpleasant and potentially damaging noise, would only be used as a speaker to communicate to large crowds when needed. The devices are often used by law enforcement agencies for dispersing large crowds and protests.

"It will have no effect on their health or well-being or comfort or anything like that," Richey said. "The sheriff has made it very, very clear that none of those things will be available on the platform that we purchase, or we are not getting it."

Richey said the number of deputies traveling to the Seattle area to assist other law enforcement agencies will depend on what the needs are this summer, but he expects the grant to cover the costs .

"I think this will be more than enough based on the amount of people I anticipate sending over there," Richey said. "We've made it pretty clear to the organizers that we're not going to just give them an open-ended, you know, unchecked amount of people."

Spokane County is facing another tough budget cycle, after the commissioners had to close a $20 million deficit to balance the 2026 budget. Spokane County CEO Scott Simmons reminded Richey to mind the bottom line as the grant is spent and the World Cup games play on.

"Just make sure that at the end of the day, that the support provided to FIFA doesn't cost the taxpayers in Spokane County anything more," Simmons said.

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