Sheriff’s Office Receives National Award for Highway Safety
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 19, 2017
CONTACT: Shari Ireton, Director of Communications, Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office
shari.ireton@snoco.org, 425-388-3377, Media line: 425-249-6263
LOUISVILLE, KY - The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office was selected by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) as a 2017 recipient of the Peter K. O’Rourke Special Achievement Award. Sheriff Ty Trenary and Undersheriff Rob Beidler received the award on behalf of the Sheriff’s Office today in Louisville, KY. The Peter K. O’Rourke Special Achievement Award recognizes individuals and organizations that have made an impact on improving highway safety.
“We are honored to accept this award on behalf of the men and women of the Sheriff’s Office who have worked hard these past two years to help implement new and unprecedented changes in driving and traffic safety in Snohomish County,” said Sheriff Ty Trenary. “Our top priority remains employee and community safety and we will continue to do everything we can to ensure everyone gets home safely every night.”
Nationwide, traffic-related deaths continue to be one of the leading causes of line-of-duty deaths for law enforcement. In 2016, 53 officers were killed in traffic-related incidents which accounted for almost 40% of all US police line-of-duty deaths that year, a 10% increase from 2015.
In 2016, the Sheriff’s Office made traffic-related safety a top priority after the agency experienced 11 on-duty collisions in 2015 that resulted in major injury for employees and civilians. The Sheriff’s Office incorporated Below 100, a national program designed to eliminate preventable line-of-duty deaths and injuries, into agency-wide communications and mandatory training. At the end of 2016, the Sheriff’s Office saw a significant reduction in traffic-, pursuit-, and collision-related injuries and damages, decreasing major injury collisions by 32% and pursuits by 38%.
This is the second time this year the Sheriff’s Office’s work in this area has received recognition. In May, the Sheriff’s Office was selected as the 2017 recipient of the Officer Traffic Safety Award by Destination Zero, an officer safety initiative sponsored by the National Law Enforcement Officer Memorial Fund.
In 2017, “telematics” were installed into every Sheriff’s Office patrol car and instructors from the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office began teaching the tenets of Below 100 to new police officers, deputies and troopers at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Academy.