FACT SHEET

X52 - Extra Patrols Every Week

January 2008

• Washington Traffic Safety Commission is releasing $450,000 worth of grants to local law enforcement agencies to help them provide additional impaired driving and speed patrols every week of the year.  [WTSC]
  
  
• The grant program is called “X52: Extra Patrols Every Week.”  These extra patrols start Feb. 15, 2008.  [WTSC]

• Washington State Patrol (WSP) will partner with local law enforcement during the X52 patrols. WSP’s extra patrols are also funded through a grant from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission.  [WTSC]

• The program is administered statewide through a partnership with 25 community traffic safety task forces who will be promoting this program at the local level in order to reach all of our state’s drivers.  [WTSC]

• An additional $450,000 will be spent on paid media and variable message signs to warn the public about the extra patrols. By serving prior notice about the extra patrols, we hope drivers will drive sober and safe and avoid the tickets and arrests that these extra patrols will generate.  [WTSC]

• The goal of the X52 project is to reduce serious injuries and deaths that occur on Washington’s roadways because of impaired drivers and speeders.  [WTSC]

• When conducting X52 patrols, multiple law enforcement agencies will be working together, concentrating their patrols on specific locations where data shows impaired driving and speeding collisions are prevalent.  [WTSC]  

• In Washington, representatives of federal, state, regional, and local government agencies, community organizations, tribal nations, and private organizations came together in 2006 to forge Washington’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan, also known as Target Zero. The Target Zero vision reflects Washington’s long term goal of eliminating all traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030. The plan was formally adopted and signed by Gov. Gregoire in February 2007, and it offers a comprehensive array of proven strategies to combat our state’s most pressing traffic safety problems, including impaired driving and speeding. One of these strategies is to conduct high-visibility, multi-jurisdictional DUI and speeding emphasis patrols at high-collision locations.  [WTSC]
  
  

WTSC:  Washington Traffic Safety Commission