Despite Republican objections, committee passes incomplete ‘police pursuit’ bill

Democrats on the Senate Law and Justice Committee yesterday turned back new attempts by Republicans to fix a criminal-friendly flaw in Washington’s law regarding police pursuits of suspected criminals. They stuck instead to a partisan approach that would delay a solution for at least 18 months, and do nothing in the meantime to address the spike in crime seen since new pursuit restrictions took effect in July 2021.

As passed by the committee, Senate Bill 5533 would create a “model vehicle pursuit policy work group” within the state Criminal Justice Training Commission. The work group would comprise both community and law-enforcement stakeholders, including the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, the Washington Fraternal Order of Police, a community organization working on traffic-safety issues, and a statewide organization working on police accountability. The CJTC would be required to present the model vehicle pursuit policy to the Legislature by Oct. 31, 2024.

“This bill won’t fix the problems caused by not allowing law-enforcement officers to use ‘reasonable suspicion’ when they decide whether to engage in vehicle pursuits of suspects. Instead, it would basically kick this important issue down the road for 18 months, or maybe longer, by having the state Criminal Justice Training Commission start a work group on it,” said 4th District Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley. “A key reason why Washington is seeing a spike in crime is because officers are not allowed to pursue suspects in most cases. We need to take action now on this matter, not study it for a year or longer.”

Before the committee passed Senate Bill 5533, Padden, who is the committee’s lead Republican, and another committee member, 39th District Sen. Keith Wagoner, offered amendments to improve the proposal.

Wagoner’s amendment would have kept SB 5533, if passed into law, from taking effect unless the Legislature also passes a bill changing the threshold required for a law-enforcement officer to engage in a vehicular pursuit from probable cause to reasonable suspicion. Wagoner’s amendment was ruled “out of scope” by the Law and Justice Committee chair, 45th District Sen. Manka Dhingra. After Padden challenged the ruling, the committee voted 5-5 on the amendment, which means it did not pass.

After his amendment was rejected, Wagoner spoke to the committee about SB 5533.

“We’ve been hearing from our communities, from our mayors, from our county commissioners, from our police departments, how important it is for us to fix this. I haven’t heard any calls to study it. I’ve heard many calls to fix it, and it is important that we get the fix right. That’s why I support the study and I support the idea of a model policy that protects everyone. But in the meantime, we are not keeping our communities as safe as we could. We can argue about cause and effect…but I know this for a fact: The switch went one way and things got worse. It might be prudent to switch the switch the other way and see if we can at least maintain the status quo or get things better while we study a model policy,” said Wagoner, R-Sedro-Woolley.

“Sometimes, when the Legislature doesn’t want to move on something, we kick it to a joint task force or a study. I don’t want to see that happen with something that is so critically important to the safety of our communities,” added Wagoner.

This video captures Wagoner’s remarks to the committee after his amendment was rejected.

Padden’s amendment would have added required members to the work group and also added additional factors the work group must consider in drafting a model policy for the training and use of vehicular pursuits for officers. The amendment was defeated along party lines. This video shows Padden explaining his amendment.

When James McMahan with the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs testified before the Law and Justice Committee on the bill Monday, he said the Washington State Patrol reports more than 3,100 people have fled from police stops since the 2021 pursuit statute went into play, and about 500 fewer people total have been pursued.