From Olympia to Spokane: Battle over changes to state’s new police accountability laws heats up

Law enforcement in Washington has been pushing for new bills during the 2022 legislative session that they say are crucial to clarifying police accountability laws passed last year. Amid that push, advocates that led efforts for 2021’s changes claim that proposed edits could unravel positive steps toward police reform.

In several instances, police have alleged that the laws passed in 2021 have prevented them from addressing a range of active crimes, particularly related to mental health crises and caretaking calls. That’s had law enforcement remaining cautious in its interpretation in practice, with the threat of decertification hanging over their heads in the event that they’re found to have actively violated the new requirements.

Police have also expressed further concerns about limitations imposed on their ability to engage in pursuits, highlighting several incidents over the last year where they claimed 2021’s reforms prevented them from pursuing suspects related to crimes like car theft and murder.

Confusion besets new police reform laws in Washington state

In order to address that, the state Legislature is considering a pair of bills: HB 2037 and HB 1788.

HB 2037 would expand the ability of officers to use physical force, provided they have probable cause to believe a suspect has committed a criminal offense, and to “prevent a person from fleeing” when stopped by police for “temporary investigation detention.”

HB 1788 would allow officers to engage in vehicle pursuits based on reasonable suspicion that a person in the vehicle has committed a crime, “subject to certain safety restrictions.”

Supporters claim the legislation would provide necessary clarity to 2021’s laws, which they say have left police with too much uncertainty in how they’re supposed to respond to calls where public safety hangs in the balance.

But advocates for police reform have been vocal in their opposition to both bills.

“Rolling back these laws in response to a campaign of disinformation of fear risks the safety of people of color across the state,” Washington Coalition for Police Accountability (WCPA) advocate Leslie Cushman said in a legislative update last week. “They are a huge step backwards on racial justice, on reducing police violence, and on police accountability.”

In the past, the WCPA has accused police in Washington of willfully misinterpreting the state’s recently-passed accountability laws, claiming last August that officers “have done everything in their efforts to undermine” the legislation since it was first implemented.

Cushman and others have criticized HB 2037 and HB 1788 as attempts to “undo the significant work done last year to address police use of force,” detailing their own concerns over a recent report using data from 2020, which revealed that deputies with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department had disproportionately used force on the county’s Black residents.

Washington lawmaker: New policing laws ‘a bump in the road, not a crisis’

The study found that the sheriff’s department was five times as likely to use force on Black residents as they were white residents. Despite the fact that Black people make up roughly 7% of the county’s population, that demographic accounted for over 23% of incidents where deputies used force. Conversely, white residents — who make up 72% of the local population — experienced use of force just over 64% of the time.

“While I am talking about Pierce County and Tacoma as an example, we have no reason to believe that it is anything different across the state,” Cushman opined.

The WCPA led a rally in Olympia last week to protest the two bills, admonishing lawmakers for considering “rollbacks” to what they say were necessary reforms.

“Last year, impacted families stood with allies to bring about change,” said Katrina Johnson, the cousin of Charleena Lyles, who was shot and killed by Seattle police officers in 2017. “We got 14 pieces of legislation passed for police accountability. In 2022, it is not OK to go back on your promises that you made to impacted families and dial back what you did because political pressure is getting to you, because law enforcement came with a fear campaign.”

“When we call the police, it is not the bills that were passed last year that’s causing them to not show up,” she added. “It’s that they are having a temper tantrum because they don’t want to change.”

In a separate rally held in Spokane on Monday, the mother of David Novak — who was killed by police in 2019 after they mistakenly believed he was holding a gun — expressed how 2021’s police reforms were designed to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.

“We don’t want the bar lowered,” she said. “My son David Novak was shot and killed by a Spokane police officer in January of 2019. He was shot in the back as he attempted to walk through the front door of his home, and he was unarmed when he was shot. Never should have happened.”

Both bills have been passed out of their respective committees, and are currently under consideration in the state Legislature.

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