Should WA police be allowed to engage in more pursuits? An initiative would allow that

An initiative to rollback police pursuit laws in Washington state was heard Wednesday, Feb. 28, before a joint session of the Senate Law and Justice and House Community Safety, Justice and Reentry Committees.

More than 5,300 people signed in to the hearing in support of the measure, with more than 150 signing in opposition to the proposal.

The sponsor of I-2113 testified Feb. 28.

“This initiative is first and foremost to restore local jurisdiction over making the rules on when a chase or a pursuit should occur,” said Brian Heywood.

The initiative would not prevent certain jurisdictions from having stricter policies in place on pursuits, he said.

Heywood added that he believes there has been an “increasing disregard for the law” when it comes to pursuits, and that laws passed by legislators in the past few years have created mistrust in the law enforcement community. He also claimed that officers are “demoralized” as a result of the laws passed in previous years.

In 2021, House Bill 1054 was passed by the Legislature and later signed into law by Inslee. The law prevented police officers from engaging in vehicle pursuits in certain instances, but still allowed officers to pursue suspects if they had probable cause to believe a driver was under the influence, they were an escapee, or if there was probable cause that a driver had committed violent or sexual crimes.

Reasonable suspicion comes before probable cause, and means that a police officer has reason to believe a crime has been committed. Reasonable suspicion becomes probable cause when a crime has obviously been committed.

In 2023, lawmakers took another swing at police pursuits, rolling back some of the previously passed measures like lowering the evidentiary threshold for officers to engage in vehicular pursuits to reasonable suspicion in instances such as: violent offenses, sexual offenses, vehicular assault, domestic violence assault in the first, second, third and fourth degrees, escapees and driving under the influence.

But the question remains whether rolling back current pursuit laws will make civilians safer, as proponents of the measure argue.

From 2017 to 2022, at least 3,336 people, including more than 550 innocent bystanders, died as a result of police pursuits, according to a report released Tuesday, Feb. 27, by the San Francisco Chronicle. The report found that “officers routinely launch deadly chases that begin with a low-level crime” or no crime at all.

Law enforcement is also very rarely held accountable in those instances, leaving no room for families to find justice even if pursuing officers violated department policies.

Others disagreed that the initiative would be beneficial.

Josh Parker, senior counsel for the Policing Project at the New York University School of Law, said that although sometimes public safety demands police pursuits, data and research show that pursuits hurt public safety because it puts the life of officers and members of the public at risk.

Importantly, Parker said, the report from the Chronicle found that just 1 in 15 people killed during pursuits were being chased for violent crimes. Pursuits are also costly and result in huge racial disparities, Parker added.

Lawmakers have until March 7 when the session adjourns to take a vote on the initiative, do nothing and let the initiative hit the ballot for voters as is, or present an alternative to go on the ballot alongside I-2113.