SEATTLE – The Washington State Patrol has been named by its peers as the top agency in North America when it comes to getting drunk drivers off the road, WSP announced Friday.
The award from the International Association of Chiefs of Police recognizes an agency’s "year-round efforts to detect and apprehend impaired drivers and to address impaired driving through policies, officer training, and public information and education."
"We consider every DUI arrest a potential life saved," said State Patrol Chief John R. Batiste in a press release. "We never know which drunks will kill, but we know with certainty that some of them will."
State troopers arrest about 20,000 impaired drivers each, which is about half the number police agencies arrest statewide, according to WSP.
Troopers got some help Friday with the enactment of Hailey's Law, which requires the vehicles of people arrested for DUI be towed away and held for at least 12 hours.
The bill is named for Hailey Huntley, who was severely injured after her car was hit head-on by a drunk driver. Janine Parker, the arrested driver, had already been stopped once that night for DUI. A trooper had taken her home, where Parker had called a cab to take her back to her car. It was after she got behind the wheel again that she crashed into Huntley.
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