Police Seek Restoration Of Warrant Checks Agencies Invoke Names Of Ted Bundy, Timothy Mcveigh To Make Their Case
State, county and city police agencies pleaded with Washington lawmakers Wednesday for clear legal authority to run criminal warrant checks when they stop motorists and jaywalkers.
A driver might also be a serious criminal, someone like serial killer Ted Bundy or Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, both caught when they were stopped for traffic infractions, law enforcement officers said.
“We cannot keep the public safe with one arm tied behind our backs,” King County Sheriff Dave Reichert told a joint House-Senate hearing on a proposed “quick fix” lawmakers are expected to approve in a special session next week.
Responding to a recent state Supreme Court ruling that police need a state law explicitly authorizing their longstanding practice of running warrant checks on traffic violators, Gov. Gary Locke has called lawmakers into emergency session next Wednesday.
A parade of law enforcement officials, some in full uniform, urged lawmakers to quickly restore a power that has been taken away or at least has fallen under a legal cloud.
A smaller number of witnesses complained that the background checks have the potential of being time-consuming, intrusive police snooping into motorists’ backgrounds.
The court case involved a Seattle jaywalker who was detained as long as 20 minutes while an officer checked out the man’s identity and checked on possible warrants. The man had two warrants in the computer and was taken to the police station, where a search turned up some heroin.
The man, Travis Lee Rife, spent time in prison, but the high court held on Aug. 28 that the heroin should not have been admitted at his trial because the officer had no clear authority to run the warrants check and haul him to the station.
Law enforcement officials, including state patrol Chief Annette Sandberg, defended the decision to continue the checks while the Locke administration and Legislature work on the permanent fix.
They responded to a concern by Sen. Val Stevens, R-Arlington, and other lawmakers that authorities may be violating the court decision that says clear authorization is needed.
Sandberg and others said the court ruling should be construed narrowly, since fast computers allow the officer to do the identity and background check simultaneously.
In the hitchhiker case, the man was detained beyond the confirmation of his identity, they noted.
“We are firmly convinced that we are legal,” said Everett Police Chief Jim Scharf.
“We are talking about a process that takes perhaps a minute,” said Thurston County Sheriff Gary Edwards. “That is not too intrusive.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, the only organized voice of opposition so far, asked the House nd Senate Law and Justice committees in a letter Wednesday to include the word “simultaneously” in the language authorizing warrant checks.
Several Democratic members of the two committees spoke in favor of that amendment, but Rep. Eric Robertson, R-Buckley, a state trooper, said the Legislature shouldn’t hamstring law enforcement. The state has numerous court decisions that offer guidance on “reasonableness” of the warrant checks and no judge would allow civil rights to be trampled, he said.
Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, and Rep. Larry Sheahan, R-Rosalia, who chair the respective committees, said lawmakers don’t intend to expand police powers, merely to restore the status quo that existed before the court ruling two weeks ago.
Sandberg and Reichert said the majority of all arrest warrants are served when people are stopped for traffic offenses. Roach called that astonishing, and suggested that state and local budgets perhaps should include more money for warrant-service.
“Warrant checks are an efficient and cost-effective way of carrying out court orders and making sure people appear for trial,” the sheriff said.
“There is almost no tool more fundamental to law enforcement than the ability to check for outstanding warrants during routine stops,” he said.