Southwest Washington officials look to state for new law enforcement training center

The legislators will make an initial request of $3.5 million toward plans for the training center, which would serve new recruits and current staff. They will seek an additional $3 million during the 2026 legislative session as well as federal appropriations from Washington’s Congressional delegation, according to a letter from Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle.

“We really need one place to come together and have the ability to give our officers the best training,” said Vancouver Police Department Deputy Chief Erica Nilsen, who noted Southwest Washington’s booming population. “That’s really why we need the regional academy.”

The academy would primarily serve as a training site for police and sheriff’s department staff from Clark, Cowlitz and Skamania counties, Nilsen said. Her department hopes to have a facility where prospective officers could train on squad car driving, firearms and scenario training, and do classroom work.

Since January, the Vancouver Police Department has used a repurposed elementary school in the city. They also rent a driving track and send recruits to the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission academy in Burien, about two-and-a-half hours north.

That distance creates barriers to hiring potential officers who are female or single parents, Nilsen said.

“To leave your family for four months is incredibly difficult. Sometimes that stops the conversation before they even get past that,” she said.

Lawmakers are pitching the idea of a potential location in Ridgefield on property that’s privately owned by the family of Boschma Farms, near where Clark College is currently building an advanced manufacturing campus.

The likelihood of landing such a request for state funds remains uncertain, given Washington’s projected $10-12 billion budget deficit. Clark County and the city of Vancouver are also navigating multimillion-dollar deficits.

“With the budget issues that we’re going to be facing, it kind of remains to be seen where we’re at. It’s going to be probably quite a stretch, but [law enforcement] is certainly my priority going into this next session,” said state Rep. Stephanie McClintock, R-Vancouver, whose district spans the north end of Clark County.

McClintock said that in addition to being a training academy, she hopes such a facility would provide a new administrative home for the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.

Officials with the Vancouver Police Department and county sheriff’s office have both recently said they are among the lowest-staffed departments in the state per capita. McClintock said a new training facility could help attract more law enforcement officers.

“We need to send a message that they are a priority,” she said. “It’s a morale issue. And it’s a good recruiting tool to show that we support our law enforcement here in Southwest Washington.”

In November, the city of Vancouver attempted to increase property taxes to fund 80 new police officers. The proposal was rejected by voters. Clark County is considering asking voters to pay for 30 new sheriff’s deputies, according to the mayor’s memo.

From 2020 to 2023, Clark County saw a 3.5% increase in population. While a new law enforcement facility would take years to complete, the need to train officers will increase as the population of Southwest Washington continues to grow.