OLYMPIA, WA – In sheer size, Washington state’s Capitol campus is the nation’s largest.
It spans 468 acres, with the Capitol grounds covering 143 of those. Overall, the complex has 30 buildings, ranging from the domed Legislative Building, where state lawmakers and the governor transact the business of governing, to a licensed childcare center.
There are three gardens, more than a dozen monuments, five parks, plus the Tivoli Fountain. Around 400,000 people visit each year and, as of July, the state Department of Enterprise Services has permitted over 500 events on campus this year. The biggest, Capital Lakefair, attracted 15,000 attendees in July.
While there’s much to keep tabs on, security around the Capitol is increasingly stretched.
That’s because earlier this year, to help balance the budget, the Legislature and Gov. Bob Ferguson signed off on spending reductions that gutted funding for security staff, including a contract with Washington State Patrol.
Looking toward 2026, the agency that oversees the campus is looking to reverse these cuts.
The cuts “effectively eliminated” the Security Operations Center, whose employees work round-the-clock monitoring more than 800 cameras and 1,000 access control points, and the Public Safety Compliance Team, who are trained in crisis de-escalation and the first contact for noncriminal issues. A leaner contract means the state patrol’s visible presence will lessen.
The Department of Enterprise Services wants Ferguson to restore roughly $3 million in funding in the 2026 supplemental budget that he will propose in December.
As is, this year’s reductions “will leave the campus unprotected and vulnerable outside of normal business hours, including weekends and holidays,” agency officials wrote in their budget request.
The Washington State Patrol, in concert with the public safety team and Security Operations Center services, has been able to “detect criminal behavior before it happens, or early on, and respond to incidents swiftly.”
Without the funding, security operations “would shift from preventative to reactive, meaning law enforcement response would take place after the damage is done to public safety, state employees, or state assets. Lower staffing levels create officer safety concerns, especially during times of civil unrest, contentious situations, or active shooters/threats.”
A 2019 study found Washington had the fewest law enforcement resources in the country for its state capitol complex. And the request notes this year’s cuts come as political activism on the campus is rising.
Permitted and nonpermitted events increased 158% in the first six months of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, according to the agency. “We expect the number of events and crowd sizes to continue increasing given ongoing federal and global issues,” reads the request.
This story first appeared on Washington State Standard.
