In The News

ARLINGTON — A new police training academy in Arlington will welcome its first class Monday, the latest step in addressing statewide staffing shortages. On Thursday morning, Gov. Bob Ferguson, local police officers and elected officials joined the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission for the academy’s ribbon-cutting ceremony. The Northwest Regional Campus is the state’s fourth satellite training ...

SNOHOMISH — The city’s future Civic Campus, scheduled to be built at Third Street and Pine Avenue later this decade, will feature brick, masonry and exposed wood beams in all the buildings. Consulting architects presented a first public look of detailed drawings last week. The campus will be the future consolidated home of City Hall, the Snohomish Police Department and Public ...

The Lynnwood Times is also recognizing Senator John Lovick (D-Mill Creek) for his support of the Washington State Justice Training Commission’s brand-new Arlington law enforcement training center. The center trains new police officers through a 720-hour program and, when it opens next year, will serve Snohomish, Skagit, Whatcom, Island, and San Juan counties at a rate of approximately 60 graduates annually. ...

Sen. John Lovick describes himself as a Black man with brown skin who wore a blue uniform for a combined 37 years as a former state trooper and Snohomish County Sheriff. “Not everybody understands that I’ve been on both sides of the badge. And I’ve been at both ends of the barrel,” Lovick, a Democrat from Mill Creek, said. “And I let ...

For 13 years, according to the Washington Association of Sheriff’s & Police Chiefs (WASPC), the state has ranked last in the county with 1.36 commissioned law enforcement officers per 1,000 people in 2022, the lowest on to date on record. The national average is 2.31 officers per 1,000 people. Data from 2022 shows a dramatic drop in commissioned law enforcement officers across ...

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, alongside Gov. Jay Inslee, pledged Thursday to throw their weight behind solving Washington’s traffic safety crisis, a show of bipartisan solidarity that the legislators said reflected the urgency of the need. The event at the state Capitol was billed as a Democratic unveiling of safety-themed legislation, but Republican transportation leaders joined as well, standing ...

OLYMPIA — The state Senate on Wednesday unanimously approved a bill to increase the number of District Court judges in Snohomish County. Senate Bill 5003 creates one additional judgeship, bringing the county’s total to 9. It would be the first expansion of the bench in a quarter century, a period in which the county’s population has grown 40%, and ...

OLYMPIA — Lawmakers set out Jan. 16 to lower the legal limit for driving drunk in Washington. The move comes as deadly crashes involving drivers who had been drinking alcohol are at levels not seen in more than a decade.

Should Washington lower the threshold for issuing DUIs? State Senator and former Washington State Trooper John Lovick believes it’s time, following a deadly year on the state’s roads. State lawmakers introduce bill to lower BAC threshold for DUIs Under a bill proposed by Sen. Lovick, the maximum blood alcohol concentration (BAC) for drivers would be lowered from 0.08% to 0.05%. That would ...

Washington state's drunk driving laws put the blood alcohol limit at .08, meaning if you're caught behind the wheel with a BAC of .08, you are legally driving under the influence. But one lawmaker wants to lower the limit and is promoting legislation to make it happen. Click here to read more...