Skagit County Sheriff's Office awarded $2.75 million grant to help with hiring

The Skagit County Sheriff's Office has a received a $2.75 million grant from the state Criminal Justice Training Commission's Public Safety Funding Program to support officer hiring, retention and training.

The grant agreement, which was approved Monday by the Skagit County Board of Commissioners, will run through June 2028.

Chief Criminal Deputy Tobin Meyer said the grant will allow the Sheriff's Office to fund several new positions.

The grant will fund three new patrol deputies, one new co-response deputy, two noncommissioned co-response staff and a park ranger.

The grant will also be used to fund a wellness and peer review coordinator, and two new emergency management coordinators.

Meyer said adding these new positions will help ease the workload of staff, namely the patrol unit.

Due to limited staffing, patrol deputies have had to take on responsibilities that were typically handled by the investigations unit, such as writing search warrants - a lengthy and technical process, Meyer said. This meant patrol deputies had less time to spend on patrol.

"We're hoping to rebalance the workload a little bit by adding these (positions)," Meyer said. "Hopefully shifting work traditionally done by detectives off of patrol and back to investigations, that should free up our patrol folks."

Meyer said staff spent about six months making sure the Sheriff's Office would qualify for the grant.

To be eligible for the grant, the state Criminal Justice Training Commission required that several policies and training requirements be met.

The Public Safety Funding Program is a part of Engrossed Substitute House Bill 2015, which went into effect in July 2025.

The bill aims to support public safety funding by establishing a $100 million statewide grant program, and allowing counties, cities and towns to pass a 0.1% sales and use tax for criminal justice purposes.

The Skagit County Board of Commissioners approved this 0.1% sales and use tax in November 2025. It took effect in April.

Although the grant funds will be available only through June 2028, Meyer said the sales and use tax should be a sufficient source of funding to retain these positions well past 2028.

Meyer said Engrossed Substitute House Bill 2015 is important to bolstering the state's law enforcement workforce.

In 2025, the state ranked 51st in the country in officers per 1,000 residents, behind all other states and Washington, D.C, according to data from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs.

In referencing this data, Meyer said he doesn't anticipate that funding from Engrossed Substitute House Bill 2015 will bring the state up to the top of the rankings, but he hopes that it will help the state move toward the middle of the pack.

The grant will also be important in ensuring funding for law enforcement as the county faces a budget shortfall, he said.

"The cost of law enforcement, frankly, it's not an inexpensive endeavor," Meyer said. "There's definitely a cost to funding operations for criminal justice and law enforcement, in particular. And our hope is that putting all the effort in, all the work we've done on this, hopefully it offsets some of those financial issues for the county."

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This story was originally published June 11, 2026 at 7:04 AM.