The officers of the Seattle Police Department (SPD) enforce the laws of the State of Washington and the City of Seattle within city limits. In a DUI context, Seattle police officers patrol the streets of Seattle. As a general rule, enforcement of DUIs that occur on the interstate highways (I-5, I-405), the state highways (SR-99, SR-520), and the remainder of King County are left to the Washington State Patrol or the King County Sheriff’s Office. Through mutual aid agreements, however, a person may be stopped by SPD in an area that is outside of its normal jurisdiction or patrol coverage.
Any commissioned Seattle police officer may stop, arrest and process an individual suspected of drunk driving. The SPD has also designated certain police officers within the force as DUI Squad officers. The DUI Squad is an emphasis patrol that claims to have specialized training in the field of DUI enforcement, BAC machine operation, field sobriety test and occasionally, drug recognition. Often, a person may have been stopped by one Seattle police officer and then find himself transferred to the custody of another. The second officer is usually a member of the DUI Squad.
We find that our clients are often apprehensive about having to face the officer who arrested them in court. They feel anxious and embarrassed or angry and upset by the idea of seeing the officer again. In the early stages of your case, at your arraignment or pretrial hearings you may rest assured that you will not be brought face to face with the arresting officer. At these stages of your case the hearings are mostly administrative rather than substantive. There is no reason for the arresting officer to be present.
The first time you may come face to face with the officer is at a motions hearing. If you have questions about a motions hearing please refer to that section of our site. At the motions hearing, the officer would be on the witness stand answering questions asked by both the prosecutor and your attorney. You will never be asked to speak directly to the officer or to have any contact with him or her.
If your case goes to trial, the officer(s) will be there as well. The officer is the city’s chief witness and his or her testimony will be presented to the court and the jury through questioning by both the city and your attorney. Again, you will not be required to have any conversation or direct contact with the officer.
Many cases are resolved prior to motions being set or trial. It is very possible that you will never be in the same room with your arresting officer again. But either way, the officers are professionals, they deal with people in your position everyday and you do not need to be concerned about ever having any type of confrontation with them. Your lawyer will always be beside you when the officer is around and you will not have to speak with them.