Overview
District 7 under the command of Captain Jason Knott, is situated in the northwest corner of Washington with headquarters located in Marysville. The district provides service in Island, San Juan, Skagit, Snohomish, and Whatcom counties. Detachment offices are located in Bellingham, Burlington, Monroe, Oak Harbor, and Silverlake. In addition, a port of entry for commercial vehicles is located southbound on Interstate 5 at Bow Hill. Together, these offices are responsible for over 790 miles of heavily traveled interstates and state routes.
There are over 100 employees in District 7 assigned to traffic law enforcement, traffic investigations, narcotics investigations, homeland security, vehicle inspections, crime laboratory, communications, electronic services, and support services. The district serves as a major gateway into British Columbia, Canada, through Interstate 5, and Bellingham is the southernmost terminal for the Alaska Marine Highway System.
Additional services includes a 911 dispatch call center, commercial vehicle enforcement, criminal interdiction, crime lab investigations and analysis, community involvement, school education priorities, as well as continuous internal and external process reviews designed to increase efficiency and overall effectiveness for the public.
Key Measurements and Statistics
In 2021, District 7 responded to a large variety of events which both challenged our employees and highlighted their competencies as leaders in the communities in which they work. Troopers made over 124,000 contacts of various kinds. They responded to and investigated 36 fatality collisions, investigated and arrested 2,116 impaired drivers, contacted 3,460 distracted drivers, made 988 drug arrests, investigated 5,507 collisions overall, and assisted 52,890 stranded motorists.
Most proactive (traffic stops or self-initiated contacts) metrics are down for the 2021 year due to reduced proactivity emphases, vaccine mandate separations, COVID infections, and the addition of laws restricting police procedures and capacity for interaction with the public.
While impaired driving collisions vacillate significantly, the general trend is flat over the last five years. Out of the 36 fatal collisions investigated, nine involved impaired drivers. The breakdown is displayed in Figure 1.
Interstate collisions account for approximately 51 percent of collisions investigated in District 7 while the remainder occurred on State Routes.
Fridays and Tuesdays show the highest number of collisions in the district over the year while the 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. time frame continues to account for more collisions than any other period of time during the day (see figure 2). This is traditionally the time when most workers are returning home and congestion on the roadways is at its peak. The district leverages staffing to accommodate these peak hours in order to respond to citizen calls for service.
One metric that is trending up, with respect to collision-causing violations, is distracted driving. This violation has become a focus of efforts in the district and will be heavily emphasized in the 2022 calendar year.
Successes of 2021
District 7 successfully employed the use of social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) to share critical data to the public warning them of road hazards, safety precautions, and helpful information regarding traffic conditions. The messaging included the information regarding road closures for widespread flooding, landslides, snow fall and pass closures, major collisions, critical investigations, wildfires, safety notices to the public, motorcycle safety, and more.
During the 2021 calendar year, troopers and the Rapid Deployment Force (all-hazards response unit which includes civil disobedience) responded to numerous protests with violent potential throughout the state, and assisted many agencies in their efforts to restore order and peace to their communities.
District 7 provided awards to citizens and troopers alike for life-saving actions which required instantaneous reactions and selfless service. Troopers saved people from attempted suicides on Deception Pass Bridge on several occasions. They responded to numerous suicidal pedestrians on roadways, bridges and overpasses. Troopers intervened with life-saving Naloxone spray for numerous individuals who were overdosing on opioids. Awards were delivered for outstanding performance in impaired driving arrests, silver-alert contacts, amber alert locates, missing person & runaway contacts, drug investigations, safety-restraint enforcement, aggressive driving apprehension, and much more.
The District 7 Criminal Investigation Unit assisted other agencies with investigating vehicular homicides, officer-involved uses of deadly force, physical assaults, sexual assaults, vehicular assaults, other types of homicide, and much more. They are continually one of the busiest units in the state.
District 7 responded to the highest number of public disclosure requests in the entire state. Over the course of the year, the district’s public disclosure employees fielded thousands of requests (over 1,080 videos and 2,243 other public records). These requests are very time-consuming, each contain multiple components, and are sensitive which requires diligent work from our dedicated personnel.
The Communications Division in District 7 also had a busy year. They fielded over 41,609 emergency 911 calls, 133,275 CAD entries, processed more than 24,637 mobile computer initiated incidents, and took more than 114,632 administrative calls. That amount of incident processing is remarkable. All this with a significant reduction in staffing to manage these duties.
District 7 continued to navigate through the COVID pandemic. Each potential case or exposure was vetted through the respective county’s health authority. Personal protective equipment was issued for every employee and sanitization efforts were robust throughout the district for safety precautions.
The staffing level for District 7 decreased by 30 percent in 2021. This required extensive use of overtime for employees to fill vacant shifts to meet the total number of collisions and calls for service.
Additional Information and Resources
For more information on how the Washington State Patrol responds to citizen calls for service, or other items of interest, please go to https://wsp.wa.gov/about-us/.