Kent mayor says $1.9 million grant under House Bill 2015 will fund officer onboarding

Mayor Dana Ralph announced that the City of Kent has been awarded $1,900,000 through the grant program established in House Bill 2015 and said the funding will be used to hire and onboard new police officers.

Ralph, speaking in her weekly update, said the 2023–2025 state law enabled cities to adopt a one‑tenth of one percent sales tax for public safety and included a $100 million grant program. "We are using that funding to hire police officers," Ralph said, adding that Kent and Black Diamond were the first two cities to receive awards under the grant program.

Why it matters: Ralph said the city expects a wave of retirements in the police department over the coming years and described the money as a way to fund training and field onboarding so the department does not "face that gap" between recruits and fully active officers. "We're gonna use a large portion of this grant funding to be able to onboard new officers so we can get them through training," she said.

Details provided by the mayor: Kent's award is $1,900,000. Ralph said the funding will support a program to bring on officers ahead of retirements and to cover training and field training costs; she also said the City received authorization from its council to levy the one‑tenth of one percent sales tax for public safety when the legislature allowed that option. Ralph said the City aims to add roughly 10 additional officers through efforts tied to this legislation.

Ralph said city staff will continue to analyze other legislative changes from the session and will provide a formal report to the city council in the coming months detailing the likely impacts of recent state actions.

The mayor did not provide a timeline for when the officers paid for with the grant will be fully active in the field, nor did she provide a detailed budget breakdown for the $1.9 million award.