Police pursuit legislation making chases easier passes key House committee

OLYMPIA – A bill making it easier for police to give chase to suspected criminals gained traction Thursday when it passed a key state House committee.

The measure would allow officers to pursue if there is “reasonable suspicion” that a person in the vehicle has committed a violent or sexual crime, or if the driver is intoxicated.

Pursuits have been a hot button topic for law enforcement in the aftermath of the police reform legislation passed in 2021.

Restricting when police can chase suspected criminals upset many law enforcement agencies that claim lawbreakers are getting away because officers are not allowed to pursue them. Many agencies are seeking a relaxed legal standard for pursuit: probable cause rather than reasonable cause.

“This is the No. 1 police safety issue for us on this side,” top Republican on the House safety committee Rep. Gina Mosbrucker, of Goldendale, said, though she acknowledged there was still work to do on the bill.

Advocates for the police reform legislation contend that police pursuits can lead to the deaths of innocent bystanders and disproportionately affect people of color.

The 8-1 vote in the House Committee of Community Safety, Justice and Reentry measure still faces plenty of scrutiny from the state Senate.

Under the House proposal, an officer cannot engage in a vehicle pursuit unless the person being pursued poses a serious risk of harm to others and only when a pursuit is necessary for the purpose of identifying or apprehending the suspect.

“I have heard many voices, and there’s a lot of dissonance in those voices,” said Rep. Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland, who is the committee chairman. “I’m hoping this is somewhat of a compromise.”

The full House and the Senate still need to approve it, but Goodman said he hopes that by moving the bill forward it will keep the conversation going.

Rep. Darya Farivar, a Seattle Democrat, was the lone “no” vote on the committee. She said pursuits are inherently dangerous and that’s why the Legislature made the 2021 change. She said the current pursuit law has saved lives.

“We’re doing this due to an implementation error as opposed to what’s actually on the books,” she said, adding law enforcement is not interpreting the current law the way it is meant to be understood. “I fear we’re choosing politics over individuals.”

The proposal passed Thursday provides a number of stipulations for when pursuits can happen. In jurisdictions with 10 or more officers, the pursuing officer must notify a supervisor immediately when they want to pursue, and the supervisor must oversee the pursuit. In jurisdictions with fewer than 10 officers, the pursuing officer must request an on-call supervisor be notified of the pursuit.

The proposal also sunsets July 1, 2025, and after that, the law reverts back to its current state where law enforcement cannot pursue unless they have probable cause.

The sunset is an attempt to allow the Legislature to receive recommendations from a work group that will study model policy over the next two years, as part of a bill that also passed the House committee Thursday.

The bill would require the Criminal Justice Training Commission to create a work group comprised of law enforcement, community safety organizations and police accountability groups.

The work group would convene by June and submit a report to the Legislature with recommendations by December.

Rep. Jenny Graham, R-Spokane, said she had concerns with the sunset clause.

“In Spokane, we have serious situations where nobody is paying attention to our traffic laws anymore,” she said.

State Senate, Law and Justice Committee chairwoman Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, has said she has concerns with changing the pursuit law. She has not brought a Senate version of the proposed changes for a vote in her committee and has indicated she may not bring up the House version if it makes it to her chamber.

Dhingra does, however, support the proposal that creates a work group to study vehicle pursuits and create a model policy.

The Senate version of the bill is awaiting a public hearing in the Ways and Means Committee.

The issue of police pursuits brought voices from all across the state speaking in support or in opposition to proposed changes.

Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward said in an interview that changing the requirement to reasonable suspicion is “absolutely what police need to be able to do their job.”

Woodward acknowledged that Spokane police already are not pursuing for certain crimes, but she said police need the ability to go after a known criminal or a person with reasonable suspicion.

Local law enforcement leaders say they should determine when to pursue based on each circumstance.

Spokane police Chief Craig Meidl told The Spokesman-Review earlier this month that criminals are fleeing from police now that they know officers can’t pursue them.

Activists and police reform advocates, on the other hand, say pursuits are dangerous. Spokane activist Kurtis Robinson, member of the Washington Coalition for Police Accountability, told a House committee last month that law enforcement is choosing not to operate within the scope of the current law, which he is says is working.