SPOKANE—The Washington State Patrol would like to remind all drivers in the coming long Memorial Day weekend that driving impaired can be the worst and most dangerous decision in your lives.

“Please, enjoy the holiday but drive responsibly, obey the speed limits, put the phones and devices away, don’t follow too closely and NEVER drive impaired. We are all in this together,” the WSP statement says.

Described by fellow Troopers as “Legendary,” Trooper Barry Marcus, a Spokane-based veteran of the Washington State Patrol (WSP), made his 4,000th career DUI arrest on April 30, 2024. Recognizing the importance of stopping impaired drivers before they can cause harm to themselves or others early in his career, Trooper Marcus has spent 23 of his 32 years on the road working the weekend night shift when the dangers of impaired driving are especially acute.

Speaking about the tragedies he had seen early in his career, along with the agony of next of kin notifications for those lost needlessly in impaired related collisions, Trooper Marcus noted, “I’d rather stop people prior to getting in the collision.” He added seeing the things he has seen “lit a flame that keeps burning pretty bright that makes me want to keep other people from having to experience that.”

Barry grew up in Spokane and had a friend whose dad was a trooper in the area. During a ride-along with the trooper in October 1991, he saw how the trooper handled himself when pulling over an obviously inebriated driver. “I was impressed, and right at that point, I said this is the job for me. There was no looking back after that – that’s the job that I wanted to do.” Trooper Marcus graduated with the 75th Trooper Basic Training Class on July 10, 1992, and 32 years later, he has distinguished himself through the constant application of commitment to service and safety. He gives his wife and family “a tremendous amount of credit” for allowing him the schedule to do this extraordinarily important work.

“WSP has many areas of service and specialization,” stated John R. Batiste, Chief of the Washington State Patrol. “Many a fine road trooper has gone on to work as a detective, a cybercrimes expert, a pilot, a K-9 handler, a commander, or any of the many equally vital roles in our agency. But many stay on the road doing the day-to-day, night-to-night, highway-to-highway work of traffic safety and enforcement for which our agency is most known. To put this in perspective, Barry’s DUI numbers put him consistently in the top annual performance category and to do that for more than three decades is something we just hold in awe and appreciation.”

The Chief added, “Trooper Marcus has saved untold lives by removing so many dangerous drivers from the roads. Perhaps yours, perhaps someone you love, perhaps my own – but if you have been on the roads of this great state in the last 30 plus years, this good man was keeping you safe and I can only say ‘Thank you, Trooper. Job well done!’”

The Washington State Patrol thanks Trooper Marcus for his 32 years of continuing service and thanks his family for the many years of sacrifice necessary to make this mark in our agency’s 103 years of service to the state of Washington.

SOURCE: Washington State Patrol