While any person is eligible to nominate a law enforcement officer for the Washington Law Enforcement Medal of Honor, all nominations must be seconded by a sheriff or chief of police of the state of Washington before being submitted to the committee for consideration.

It depicts the Seal of Washington centered on the obverse side surrounded by the words "Law Enforcement Medal of Honor."

The reverse of the decoration is inscribed with the words "for exceptionally honorable and meritorious conduct in performing services as a law enforcement officer."

By custom, the medal is annually awarded by the Governor to a slate of recipients during the first week of May in a ceremony held at the Peace Officers Memorial in Olympia, Washington.

[1] As of 2014, Seattle police officer David Sires, who was shot to death while pursuing suspect Benjamin Payne in October 1881, is the longest deceased officer to have received the Law Enforcement Medal of Honor, which was posthumously awarded in 1998 (Sires' last living relative having died in 1939, the medal was accepted on his behalf by a representative from the Seattle police department).