Trooper Mata and Trooper Mosqueda sharing the opportunity to be a trooper.
Overview
District 3 is comprised of the seven southeastern counties of Washington State covering over 900 miles of state and interstate highways, and shares borders with Oregon and Idaho. More than a 140 employees are assigned, providing an array of services; law enforcement troopers, Target Zero Team, traffic investigations, narcotics investigations, vehicle inspections, criminal investigation detectives, crime laboratory, communications, and support personnel.
The district is responsible for providing service to Asotin, Benton, Columbia, Franklin, Garfield, Walla Walla and Yakima Counties. Detachment offices are located in Yakima, Grandview, Kennewick and Walla Walla.
Key Measurements and Statistics
The mission of the Washington State Patrol (WSP) is to make a difference every day, enhancing the safety and security of our state by providing the best in public safety services.
One of the many ways District 3 is supporting this mission is by creating relationships with our stakeholders. In 2019, the district had a 48 percent increase in the number of community outreach events. This increase equated to educating 160,064 people in traffic safety awareness.
Some examples of outreach efforts include:
- Distracted driving awareness to high school students
- Impaired Driving, Every 15 minutes Program, Mock DUI Collision presentation
- El Protector– Connecting communities through education
- Partnerships and education with trucking companies
- Car Seat Safety Checks
Successes of 2019
The district was successful in a relaunch of the “El Protector” Program. The program officially began on February 20, 2003, at a community meeting held in Burbank, Washington. The El Protector Program was developed to reach a segment of our community who may otherwise have limited access to traffic safety information or laws within the state of Washington.
The program continues to make a positive impact, with the reduction of fatality and felony collisions involving Latino surnamed drivers. The face-to-face outreach instills trust and demonstrates transparency to the Hispanic community. Trooper Daniel Mosqueda is a ten-year veteran of the Washington State Patrol, assigned to the Kennewick APA. Trooper Mosqueda has been certified as a Drug Recognition Expert and spent time working as a member of our Aggressive Driving Apprehension Team (ADAT). If you are interested in learning more about this important outreach, please email elprotector@wsp.wa.gov. Watch the YouTube video here and find him on Twitter: @WSPElProtector.
Crisis Intervention Training – an additional 19.6 percent of District 3 troopers attended this 40 hour advanced class.
What we are planning for in 2020
The 55th Annual Tri-City Water Follies event is on the Columbia River and continues to draw over 70,000 people for Hydroplane Boat races, fireworks, family fun and activities. It occurs at the hottest time of the year, the last week of July, and temperatures have reached over 100 degrees. The 2019 event resulted in 15 DUI arrests and two Boating Under the Influence.
The Moxee Hop Festival brings in over 30,000 people to the Hop Capital of the world. The town of Moxee is growing 75 percent of the nation’s hops, and was voted as one of the top 10 beer festivals in the nation. This event is growing in attendance each year. In 2019, we collaborated with the Mobile Impaired Driving Unit (MIDU) to assist with processing DUI’s. This made more time for our troopers to proactively patrol.
At both of these events, we saw an increase in DUI arrests from 2018, and we are proud to say there were zero serious injury or fatality collisions. This will continue to be our goal for 2020.