By Pepper Fisher

PORT ANGELES – Washington state lawmakers made some important adjustments to last year’s police reform laws that were broadly seen by law enforcement as too restrictive. Notably, language was clarified to once again authorize the use of less lethal munitions, to allow use of force in transporting people to mental health treatment, and to allow the use of force during investigative detentions, known as Terry stops.

The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs are hailing those moves as positive improvements, but they also note that something very important was skipped over in the final hours. Senate Bill 5919, or the pursuit bill, easily passed both the Senate and the House but did not make it out of the Legislature. That means the current law that imposes strict limits on when police can engage in high-speed vehicle pursuits remains unchanged. That turn of events frustrated many in law enforcement, including Port Angeles Police Chief Brian Smith. Smith says his officers are seeing more “failure to stop” events because the reasonable suspicion standard has been taken away.

“It’s about the ability to pursue that creates the circumstances where we don’t have to pursue versus a widespread belief that we can’t pursue someone creates the circumstances where some people choose to flee from us, and it makes the problem significantly worse.”

In other words, the word is out to some offenders that unless police have probable cause to suspect a violent crime or sexual assault has been committed, it’s okay to drive off, even during routine traffic stops, because they can’t come after you. One critic likened it to a get-out-of-jail-free card.

“The psychology of all this is, if people believe that we’re going to stop them, many of them won’t flee from us. They’ll pull over and stop. But if they believe that we can’t pursue them, some of them will just continue to drive, and drive dangerously and recklessly. And we don’t want to have more pursuits. That’s what’s important here. I don’t think that the legislative changes in 2021 took into account any of that.”

So far this year, PenCom dispatch has recorded 8 incidents of drivers eluding police in this manner countywide, versus 2 in the same period last year.

So, why didn’t SB5919 come to a final vote on the final day of the session despite broad bipartisan support? Some Democrats took issue with some of the language in the final version, and  Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig said in a news conference on March 10 that without the time to debate it, they didn’t have the needed support to pass it.

“We did not have the votes to bring it to the floor. We did not have that level of support. And I think that the, you know, focus on that overshadows all of the great work in public safety that we did do this year. You know, all of the other police accountability related bills passed, as well as all the other public safety measures. So, I think the totality of what we accomplished in the ublic safety field is a big step forward.”

That may come as cold comfort to Chief Smith, who suspects, in the months ahead, we’ll see some unfortunate consequences.

“You know, I think that next session you’re going to have 9 or 10 more months of anecdotal stories and actual data showing the challenges we’re having and that I believe, legislatively something’s going to have to be done to address this. There’s nothing else that’s going to discourage this bad, you know, non-compliant and really dangerous driving behavior.”