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Let’s restore law enforcement’s ability to pursue suspects

'Reasonable suspicion' trumps 'probable cause'

By Rep. Alicia Rule, Guest Writer

Suspects used sledgehammers to break into a mom-and-pop store and were able to just drive away; a recently released mental hospital patient stole a yellow school bus, drove across Eastern Washington, and tried to harm his family because police couldn’t stop him; and more than 45,000 cars were stolen in Washington state last year and little could be done to catch the criminals. The victims of these crimes deserve better. The police want to arrest emboldened criminals, but a 2021 law must be fixed to end the sense of lawlessness that risks public safety.

I am concerned with the increase in violent crime in my community and across the state and it is imperative that we remember the victims of these crimes. They are our friends and neighbors, and our most vulnerable communities suffer the most when law enforcement cannot pursue those who commit crimes.

Along with 54 other legislators, both Democrats and Republicans, I have sponsored a measure to help restore the ability of law enforcement to pursue suspects on reasonable suspicion, rather than probable cause. My proposal (HB1363) still provides for very strong restrictions on pursuits, and a common-sense balancing test: that the risks of not arresting the suspect outweigh the risk of the pursuit itself. The proposal balances safety and justice for victims and is consistent with the idea that pursuits should be the exception and only occur when very necessary. 

Many police reform laws in the past few years have helped hold law enforcement more responsible. Starting with the statewide voter-passed Initiative 940 in 2018, additional accountability measures passed by the Washington Legislature have also strengthened de-escalation training to include a more specific definition of the use of force. But the 2021 law to limit when police can pursue suspects went too far and needs to be corrected.

Data is available that the July 2021 law change has led to more dangerous roadways, contributed to increased crime, and has allowed criminals to act with impunity. 

The Washington State Patrol (WSP) has tracked the number of pursuits that did not happen once the restrictions began in mid-2021 as well as those that were allowable under the new law. Actual pursuits decreased to about 500, but the number of vehicles that just drove away from state troopers was more than 3,100. The WSP makes up a little under 600 of the more than 10,000 law enforcement officers statewide, so that gives you a strong indication of what is happening every day in our communities.    

Supporters of the status quo have cited a study by a retired University of Washington professor that claimed deaths of bystanders has gone down since the 2021 law went into effect. Using data to inform our decision-making process is important to me. Frankly, many of the claims that have been made about what this “data” said sounded compelling and concerning to me upon first look. I’ve seen many of my colleagues make public statements that appear to rely exclusively on this same data, so I decided to inquire with an independent source as to whether or not the data we’ve been hearing about can be relied upon.

I asked for an independent review of the data from Mathew J. Hickman, PhD, chair of the Department of Criminal Justice, Criminology & Forensics at Seattle University. He concluded: If this analysis was submitted for peer-review, it would be summarily rejected as it does not satisfy threshold criteria for quantitative scientific work. The analysis should be disregarded in its entirety and should not be used to inform legislative decision-making.

Crime is on the rise and while no one can point to one specific issue that caused it, there is no doubt that misrepresentation of information and political rhetoric certainly isn’t going to stop it. Traffic fatalities and auto thefts have increased. And while actual pursuits statewide have decreased, numbers of drivers fleeing troopers, but not pursued, have actually more than doubled since the law change, according to the Washington State Patrol.

This debate should not be over academic studies. The legislature doesn’t need to wait another year or commission another government agency to gather statistics, it needs to listen to the thousands of victims who have watched pleas to the police to stop their perpetrators go unanswered. We were elected to make these hard decisions, not delay when the need is so clear. It’s time to act.

Rep. Alicia Rule (D-Blaine) represents the 42nd Legislative District.  She was elected to the House of Representatives in 2020 and won re-election in 2022.

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