3.2.16

Suggested lead:   The state House OK'd a significant raise for Washington State Patrol officers Wednesday, to boost morale and slow poaching by other agencies.  Dan Frizzell has that story.

Wrap (:63 total):  A study ordered by lawmakers last year turned up big problems inside the Washington State Patrol.  Morale was down, salaries weren't competitive with other major law enforcement departments, there were a hundred unfilled trooper slots, and 40 percent of the aging force was within a decade of retirement age.  This week the state House responded by overwhelmingly approving legislation designed to remedy the problems and return the Patrol to its place as the state's elite crime-fighting agency.  The bill's author is Representative Jake Fey.   

FEY:  "We're taking their problem seriously.  We're responding to make it possible for them to do their jobs and to feel like they're being fairly compensated for the work that they do, and to show that the Legislature, at least the House of Representatives, is on their side." [:14]. 

Fey, a Tacoma Democrat, got an 85-to-12 bipartisan thumbs-up for his bill, which is now in the Senate's hands.  If that chamber sends it on to Governor Jay Inslee before the Legislature adjourns for the year on March 10, troopers will see fatter paychecks beginning in July.  In Olympia, I’m Dan Frizzell.