SEATTLE — Dressed in full uniform, police recruits line up in formation ready to begin their day at the Regional Training Academy in Vancouver, Washington.
At 7 a.m. sharp their day starts with the pledge of allegiance followed by pushups.
The patches on the majority of the 32 recruits in this class read Clark County Sheriff’s Office or Vancouver Police Department.
The recruits walk into a former elementary school. Now it’s a new kind of learning zone. It's an attempt at solving a police academy backlog.
"Once I found out that there was an academy opening here, I instantly started working towards getting accepted," Clark County Sheriff’s recruit Amanda Madison said.
It’s a bold decision for Madison. Her full-time job her son's whole life has been as a mom.
“I've been a stay-at-home mom for 11 years," recruit Madison said. “I just want him to see it's never too late to go after something you want."
This dream is only possible for Madison and some of the other recruits in the Vancouver academy because they get to earn their badge near home.
"I would not have been able to do this if I had to go to Burien," Madison said.
Until 2023, the Criminal Justice Training Center in Burien was the only academy in all of western Washington.
“We could only run so many academies there and you need people to instruct,” Director of the training bureau Dave Miller said. “And obviously a lot of the agencies are shorthanded, and we get our instructors from the agencies. So, it was a perfect storm.”
The state of Washington ranks last in the nation in the number of police officers per capita. It’s hovered around that low ranking for more than a decade.
KING 5 discovered one of the biggest reasons isn’t about pay or burnout, but a backlog of recruits that need to be trained.
By 2022 recruits were waiting up to a year to enter the academy, and it could be 18 months by the time new officers were patrolling the streets.
It leaves law enforcement positions unfilled and costs those departments. Recruits are paid while they wait for their spot in the academy.
“That’s a lot of salary and benefits these agencies are paying,” Miller said.
Miller and the Criminal Justice Training Commission, which oversees the running of the state’s police academy, found a solution.
Funded by the state they’ve opened two regional academies. The first was in Pasco last year and then a second earlier this year in Vancouver.
Another academy site is set to open by the end of the year in Snohomish County. This year lawmakers approved more than $1.5 million for that academy.
All the academies are paid for through the state’s general fund.
Miller estimates the backlog of recruits used to be as many as 500-600 people.
“Now we only have a 14-person waiting list, which is just insane and unbelievable we made that happen so quick,” Miller said.
The new regional academies cover all the requirements. That includes classroom hours, defensive training in the gym, mock scenarios like traffic stops and target practice on the shooting range.
Recruits bring experience from past careers. Clark County Sheriff’s recruit Rick Welty served active duty in the Air Force.
“I made the decision to come to law enforcement when I thought Burien was the only location. I had to do a lot of preparing my family that I was doing a mini deployment,” Welty, who lives in the Vancouver area, said.
Now instead of staying 160 miles away for more than four months, Welty’s at home in Vancouver every night for dinner.
“I really just wanted to stay in my community. That’s important to me,” Welty said.
It’s equally important to the instructors at this academy.
Deputy Chris Pizan from the Clark County Sheriff’s Office is now training people who will soon be working in the same department.
“I get to watch their growth. I also get to channel their strength,” Pizan, who specializes in defensive training, said. “When we ship them off to Burien, we don’t see them until they graduate.”
The gymnasium Pizan trains recruits is named in honor of his mentor, who was killed in the line of duty, Sgt. Jeremy Brown. By mentoring others he said he’s able to pay homage to Brown.
“We’re training them to our standards,” Pizan said.
The training at the academies is different than it was in the past. Law enforcement leaders said the focus over the last decade has changed from a warrior to a guardian mentality.
“There’s been a big shift. We still like some discipline as you see we do pushups. We have a formation,” Miller said. “We’re more about adult learning now and making good decisions, because that’s what community members want. They want someone to be passionate and make good decisions.”
Miller said that means less time in the classroom and more programs where they can practice real-life scenarios.
Welty and Madison are a part of the second-ever class in Vancouver. They see this as a chance to show their community and kids they’re ready to take on this new challenge.
“He only sees one side of me. He gets to see me as a mom, but there's so much more to me than just that,” Madison said. “Go after whatever you want."
Madison's class will be patrolling the streets by the start of next year.