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Thurston County sheriff: $50,000 state grant will fund weekend DUI overtime patrols
Summary
Sheriff Sanders told the Thurston County Board of County Commissioners that the county received $50,000 from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission to pay for overtime DUI enforcement shifts running through the fall; the funding covers time-and-a-half overtime and will staff DUI-certified deputies on weekend emphasis patrols.
Thurston County Sheriff Sanders told the Board of County Commissioners during the board's May 20 agenda-setting work session that the Thurston County Sheriff's Office received $50,000 from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission to fund overtime DUI enforcement shifts through the fall.
The grant is listed as item 8 on the consent agenda for the board's May 20 afternoon meeting. "We actually applied for a grant that would give us a full FTE to do DUI enforcement ... we ended up getting the grant. ... they did follow-up and offer us $50,000 in funding for overtime to do DUI emphasis from now basically until fall," Sheriff Sanders said. He said the funding will pay overtime for deputies certified to make DUI arrests and process those cases.
Sheriff Sanders described the expected patrol pattern as extra shifts on Friday and Saturday nights, and possibly Sunday and other weekend hours in some areas. He said the money will pay overtime at time-and-a-half for deputies ("Only for the jail. This would be time and a half," he said in response to a question about overtime pay rates). The sheriff also emphasized that DUI arrests require substantial deputy time, saying a full DUI arrest and processing can take about two hours.
The sheriff said the funding will be used by the Sheriff's Office only; the Washington Traffic Safety Commission "doesn't care where we get our DUIs from," he said, meaning the emphasis is on removing impaired drivers from county roads rather than on jurisdictional limits. No vote or formal approval occurred during the work session; the item was placed on the afternoon consent agenda for the full board meeting.
Clarifying details discussed included the $50,000 grant amount, the overtime pay rate of time-and-a-half for deputies on these assignments, the sheriff's estimate that a complete DUI arrest and processing can take about two hours, and that the emphasis patrols will be staffed by deputies who are DUI-certified. An unnamed commissioner briefly calculated that at an $80 hourly figure the funding would cover roughly 625 overtime hours; the sheriff did not confirm that specific calculation.
The discussion did not include a formal motion or vote during the work session. The item remained scheduled as a consent-item for the regular board meeting later the same day.
