Washington State Patrol - Office of the Chief

Office of the Chief Photo of the State Capitol

The State Patrol headquarters is located in Olympia, within view of the state's capitol (right). The Office of the Chief manages the statewide operations of the agency and directly oversees the following services:

Department Psychologist
Labor Relations and Legal Office
Government and Media Relations
Honor Guard

Labor and Policy Office

The Labor and Policy Office is responsible for working with the Office of Financial Management Labor Relations Office (OFM LRO) on labor relations matters and representing the agency at Master Agreement negotiations for statewide contracts. The Labor & Policy Advisor also works directly with bargaining unit representatives and union representatives to communicate, exchange information, and respond to grievances. In addition, this office trains management representatives on bargaining agreements.

The Labor & Policy Advisor provides assistance to the Chief on policy-related matters; coordinates WSP legal matters with the Attorney General’s Office, who represents the WSP; assists with in-service and basic training for employees; and serves as a resource for managers in making policy decisions.

Recent Changes in WSP Risk Management
Recently, most risk management duties formerly located in the Labor Relations and Legal office have been shifted to the newly created Risk Management Division (RMD) headed by Dr. Don Sorenson as part of the Management Services Bureau.

This shift of duties includes:

Providing tort claim forms to citizens that request them;
Agency contact for WSP vehicle claims with the WSDOT Risk Management team;
Office of Financial Management Incident form management (WSP employees must provide the OFM Incident form to RMD instead of the Office of the Chief);
Agency contact with the Office of Risk Management claims office; and
Agency contact with statewide committees for risk management.

The Labor & Policy Office will continue to serve as the agency contact regarding lawsuits with the Attorney General’s office and individual request for defense forms, handle subpoenas involving the agency and employees, and serve as a resource to the RMD on larger tort claims.

Government and Media Relations

This division serves two distinctive functions for the Office of the Chief. The legislative liaison is responsible for coordinating agency legislation with legislators, committees, and other state agencies. The liaison also reviews and seeks input from interested stakeholders on agency legislation and answers policy questions for legislative constituents. This office also handles all statewide media relations for the agency.

Personnel assigned to Government and Media Relations provide assistance and training to the district public information officers, answer media inquiries dealing with agency policy, publish agency media releases , and monitor regional news broadcasts and publications.

Additional support services through Government and Media Relations include the WSP Staff Photographer, Video services, Equpment and Standards Review, and the publication of the departments Inside Out Newsletter.

Department Psychologist

The department clinical psychologist is available to employees and their families to provide assistance when their well-being is threatened by vocational stress. The primary responsibility of the psychologist is to counsel employees after involvement in traumatic critical incidents. The psychologist does not become involved in long-term counseling.

Honor Guard

The office of the Chief oversees the WashingtonState Patrol Honor Guard Unit. The WSP Honor Guard was established in 1984 and is available for funerals of active department members, active officers of other agencies, and other functions as the Chief may designate. Click here to learn more and view the history of WSP's Honor Guard.

Request for Services

Only the Chief of the Washington State Patrol can approve the use of the Honor Guard and all requests should be directed through the Honor Guard Commander, Detective Sergeant John-Paul Sager, (360) 704-2390.


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