Introducing WACOPS' Inaugural Policy Platform

As the 2027 legislative session approaches, WACOPS is proud to release our inaugural Policy Platform. This platform details WACOPS' priorities for the law enforcement profession and public safety across the state. It calls for a collaborative, bipartisan, and evidence-based approach to policymaking — one that treats officers as partners and subject-matter experts, respects local control, and protects fair due process and labor rights for the men and women who dedicate their lives to serving Washingtonians.

The platform is built around 6 key advocacy priorities:

• Driving Recruitment & Retention: Sustaining investment in and support of the profession amid the state's worst-in-the-nation staffing crisis.
• Strengthened Collective Bargaining & Labor Rights: Protecting and improving officers' labor rights, along with transparent and fair due process protections for those who serve.
• Ensuring Accountability for All & Building Community Trust: Maintaining accountability built on fair, objective, evidence-based practices grounded in data and officer experience.
• Equipping & Training Officers to Succeed: Improving funding for the resources and training officers need to meet the state’s high professional standards.
• Protecting & Enhancing Officer Retirement Benefits: Prioritizing the pensions, benefits, and wellness support that let officers serve — and eventually retire — with dignity.
• Officers & the Community: Encouraging funding for programs that bring officers and residents together to build the relationships and trust that keep us all safe. 

Each of the above priorities reflects what we hear from officers across more than 100 member organizations we represent. And each is grounded in the evidence and lived experience about how policing in Washington actually works. As the largest, oldest, and most influential organization representing peace officers in Washington, WACOPS has a long history of collaboration and problem-solving. We look forward to continuing this work to improve the law enforcement profession, community trust, and public safety for all Washingtonians.

Read the Platform 

Public Safety by the Numbers

Every 5.1 minutes

In 2025, a crime against a person was reported in Washington every 5.1 minutes. Every 33.4 minutes, it was an aggravated assault. That comes from WASPC’s annual Crime Clock, which converts the year’s reported crime into how often each offense happens. Every one of those calls needs an officer to respond, and yet for the last 15 years Washington has had the fewest officers per capita in the nation. That means that every few minutes a Washington officer responds to a crime against a person without the support and safety afforded in other parts of the country.

Read the Report

WACOPS in Action: Executive Director Teresa Taylor Joins Statewide Panel on Use of Force Data

Last week, WACOPS Executive Director Teresa Taylor joined a panel discussion on the Washington State Data Exchange for Public Safety (WADEPS) at Everett Community College, moderated by Attorney General Nick Brown. The panelists - including WADEPS Principal Investigator Dr. David Makin, Everett Police Chief Robert Goetz, Snohomish County Sheriff Susanna Johnson, Nickeia Hunter of the Washington Coalition for Police Accountability, and Spokane Police Ombuds Bart Logue - discussed insights from WADEPS' recent report on statewide use-of-force data, the importance of this database for improving transparency, policing, and community trust, and what comes next.

WACOPS is proud to have helped build WADEPS, the first and most comprehensive statewide database of its kind in the nation. As we shared last month, the latest data shows that it takes over 2,300 calls for service to have one reportable use of force incident - and that during these incidents, significant injury to either an officer or individual occurs less than 20% of the time. This data continues to confirm that our state's officers are highly professional, rarely use force, and when they must, do so judiciously.

As WADEPS itself notes, the system is still maturing, and good policy will depend on letting the experts finish their analysis. We look forward to continuing this conversation with legislators and stakeholders in the months ahead.

Read the Report

What We’re Reading: Recent Coverage Worth Your Attention

• Washington State Standard: Judge permanently blocks WA sheriff standards law
• Bellingham Herald: State funds in place to lift Bellingham’s new police drone program off the ground
• KREM 2: Spokane could enact new sales tax to pay for public safety campus
• Radio Pacific, Inc.: 911 dispatch training course is a first in Washington state