Law Enforcement Training and Community Safety Act - Progress on Training

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Washington’s Law Enforcement Training and Community Safety Act – originally Initiative 940 – established new statewide requirements for police violence de‑escalation and mental health training. The Criminal Justice Training Commission is responsible for developing and delivering this continuing training, including establishing timelines, curriculum content, and completion deadlines. With the passage of Initiative 940 in 2018, Washington voters transformed police accountability in our state. For example, the standards of I-940 form the basis for our Office’s use of deadly force investigation audits, which are unique in the nation.

With this performance audit, we look at another aspect of this landmark law: increased standards for police violence de-escalation and mental health training. Applying both patrol tactics and cultural awareness trainings, the law’s intended goal is to ,make interactions between officers and community members safer.

Read a three-page summary of the report (PDF).

Report Number 1039295 Report Credits

Key results

Our audit found that, although the commission has created most required training courses, many officers are not meeting the state law’s 40‑hour continuing training requirement. Barriers include limited enforcement tools, inconsistent agency participation and communication challenges between the commission and law enforcement agencies.

The commission has made significant progress developing the state’s required continuing training. It created more than 40 hours of content, including community and cultural awareness courses and patrol tactics training. Most, but not all, curriculum topics required by law have been fully developed. The list of continuing training topics appears ambitious, given the time available for officers to take the training.

However, statewide officer progress is far behind legal expectations. Only 16% of veteran officers and 14% of new officers have completed the required 40 hours of training by their respective deadlines. At the current pace, about half of all officers will remain noncompliant in 2028 and beyond.

Several factors contribute to this gap. Police agencies reported resource limitations, scheduling challenges, and concerns about the relevance of certain courses. The commission also lacks effective tools to ensure compliance, and data systems do not provide clear, accurate information about officers’ progress. These issues collectively hinder the law’s goal of improving interactions between officers and the communities they serve.

Background

The Law Enforcement Training and Community Safety Act became law in 2019 and is the first of its kind in the nation. It requires all officers to complete recurring training in violence de‑escalation, mental health, community engagement and patrol tactics. The commission designed a 40‑hour program consisting of 16 hours of online community and cultural awareness content and 24 hours of in‑person patrol tactics training delivered through a train‑the‑trainer model. It determines the training schedule, curriculum and methods for delivering these courses statewide.

Although the commission has established the violence de-escalation and mental health training program and invested time and resources in it since 2019, some community members were nonetheless concerned that officers might not meet their training deadlines. They also sought information about the commission’s progress toward fulfilling its own responsibilities.

Training development

The commission developed an extensive list of continuing training topics for legally required curricula, which it used to create more than 40 hours of available courses. Community and cultural awareness trainings cover most but not all topics required by law. For patrol tactics, the commission has fully developed training for all but one topic. However, better planning could have helped the commission develop all required topics and review its trainings. With a more systematic approach, the commission could develop future trainings more effectively.

Officer compliance

The law requires all police officers to complete 40 hours of continuing training, but the deadline for completion depends on when the officer graduated from basic academy and received initial certification. Despite this being a legal requirement, most officers have not completed the mandated 40 hours of continuing training. Completion rates are low among both veteran and new officers, and the trend suggests that large numbers of officers will remain noncompliant beyond 2028. The audit found that limited participation in the patrol tactics train‑the‑trainer model, combined with resource challenges within police agencies, significantly slows officers’ progress.

Barriers and communication challenges

Police agencies cited several obstacles to meeting the training requirements. For patrol tactics, agencies struggle to allocate sufficient staff time and funding to send officers and trainers. For community and cultural awareness courses, the required in‑person classes can be difficult to schedule. Some officers resist these trainings for personal or political reasons.

The commission’s communications with police agencies has also been ineffective, compounding barriers for police training managers and officers alike.

Data and transparency issues

The commission does not require or review compliance with the 40 hours of training, unlike its other programs. While it has data to determine officers’ compliance, its reports do not provide this information. In turn, agencies face barriers to tracking their officers’ training compliance using the commission’s IT system: the commission’s inaccurate due dates and incomplete instructions, and agencies’ own uncertainty about program structure and varying capacity. Public accountability on officers’ progress with the state law is key to meeting legal intent.

Recommendations

We recommended the Legislature establish a work group that includes the commission, law enforcement and representatives of the original citizens’ initiative to propose statutory changes that ensure all officers receive the required training.

We made additional recommendations for the commission to:

  • Update administrative rules to reflect current practices
  • Develop a project management plan for future training development
  • Improve communication with law enforcement agencies
  • Increase agencies’ ability to monitor their officers’ compliance
  • Publicly report statewide officer compliance with required training