As director of Partners for Social Change (PSC) Paul lobbied and partnered with the WCPA (WA Coalition for Police Accountability) for the second session in a row. In 2021, we passed some very transformative bills – HB 1310 established de-escalation as a statewide standard for law enforcement officers; HB 1054 prohibited certain police tactics such as no knock warrants and chokeholds; and HB 1257 established an independent office of investigations for deaths resulting from law enforcements use of deadly force.
Ever since those bills from 2021 were passed and signed into law by the Governor law enforcement has been systemically pushing back from all corners and places of our state – with a LOT of publicity. The ’22 legislature saw that “push back” evidenced by many law enforcement supported bills to “balance” what was passed the previous session. Two of these the PSC and the WCPA were not opposed to – one was on clarifying the use of less lethal weapons HB 1735 and the other HB 1725 was to better clarify what situations (especially mental health calls) law enforcement could show up for and not be afraid of using force to detain someone in a MH crisis.
However, there were two bills (one passed – HB 2037 and one didn’t SB 5919) that would’ve taken us back considerably given the gains we made reforming the police does its work in our state.
HB 2037 is about civil traffic stops that made two significant changes – one is moving from probable cause (a higher legal standard to prove) to reasonable suspicion (a lower legal standard to prove) to pull someone over and then second gives the ability for law enforcement to use force when detaining someone and particularly to keep them from fleeing the scene. This bill passed, was signed by the governor and is now state law and being implemented.
The other bill SB 5919 had to do with vehicular pursuits and when and how law enforcement could do these very risky pursuits did not pass. This bill went back to how law enforcement did pursuits before the 2021 session which more often than not put the public at risk and so we were glad that this did not end up on the governor’s desk.
