Case Study: Snohomish County achieves improved officer safety and cost savings with Verizon Connect

How Snohomish County is using Verizon Connect to improve officer safety

Snohomish County faced a critical officer-safety challenge: car accidents are the leading cause of line-of-duty deaths and many involved unbelted officers. Motivated by the Below 100 safety program and leadership from Undersheriff Rob Beidler, Snohomish County turned to Verizon Connect and its telematics software to better monitor and manage driving behavior, seat-belt use, speeding, and patrol activity.

Verizon Connect’s telematics delivered real-time data, contextual reporting (for example, whether lightbars were activated), and location tracking to coach deputies and optimize patrol time. The County reduced unnecessary idling by 1.4 hours per vehicle per shift—enough to expect recovery of the telematics implementation cost—cut maintenance through less over-servicing and fewer brake/tire replacements, and lowered accident-related repair, medical and litigation expenses (2015 collisions previously cost $151,171 in medical/legal and $2.3M in litigation). Snohomish County expects additional savings and plans to reinvest funds to hire more deputies.

Snohomish County

Rob Beidler

Undersheriff