By: Jeanie Lindsay, Northwest News Network
After hours of public speeches, the Washington Legislature decided Monday to once again make changes to the state rules around police car chases.
Lawmakers approved a police pursuit initiative alongside two other high-profile voter measures – one outlining parents’ rights to oversee their kids’ schooling, the other to ban new income taxes at the state and local levels. All three of these policies will become law later this year.
These initiatives are part of a slate of Republican-backed measures that have dominated the legislative session this year. The three initiatives lawmakers passed this week would have less of an impact on the state — especially financially — than other initiatives that will appear on voters’ ballots this fall.
Democrats hold the majority in the Legislature but were split on the proposals before them, while Republicans supported all three of the initiatives unanimously.
The police initiative (I-2113) is the most consequential of the three and prompted the most discussion in the House and Senate. While the income tax measure and the parents’ rights policy largely don’t change current education and financial practices under state law, the pursuit initiative makes two key changes to the state’s minimum police chase rules.
Current law says officers must have “reasonable suspicion” that a person in a fleeing vehicle committed a specific type of crime – including sex offenses and violent crimes – and that the person poses a “serious risk of harm” to others.
The initiative would broaden the list of offenses that could prompt a pursuit. It says an officer could pursue someone they reasonably suspect broke “the law.” It also says the officer could pursue if that person poses a “threat to the safety of” other people.
Other regulations, like training rules and supervision requirements, are not changed by the initiative, nor does the initiative force police departments to adopt the looser parameters. Communities where local police departments have adopted more restrictive rules may not see any changes even once the initiative language goes into effect in early June.
Democrats who pushed back against modifying the state’s current pursuit policies said they worried about creating confusion among members of the public. They also said it could open the door for more people to be hurt or killed in pursuits over property or nonviolent crimes – especially Black people, who are four times as likely to die from police pursuits compared to white people, according to a recent investigation from the San Francisco Chronicle.
“The balance of weighing out somebody’s life – and injuries that could potentially halt the life they lived before they were hit, or struck by a police vehicle or a vehicle being chased – to me that stays more important than the cost or value of any vehicle,” said Yasmin Trudeau (D-Tacoma).
Meanwhile, Republicans have characterized the initiative as a way to give law enforcement back a “tool” they say the existing law took away. Rep. Dan Griffey (R-Allyn) said that passing the initiative would send a message that people cannot commit crimes without consequence.
“There will be consequences. We will allow law enforcement to do the good work that they’ve been trained to do and hopefully stop crimes before they injure another individual,” Griffey said.
Many of the Republican lawmakers who spoke about the police pursuit initiative said they’re particularly worried about stolen vehicles that could be used to commit other crimes.
Parents’ rights
The Legislature also approved I-2081, which outlines more than a dozen rights for parents to oversee their kids’ schooling.
There was some hesitation among Democrats to support the measure because they worry about how it might change teenagers’ rights to health care services and privacy. But an analysis from legislative staff shows that most of what’s laid out in the parental rights initiative already exists under a combination of state and federal regulations and wouldn’t conflict with students’ rights.
It was enough to ease concerns of some of the members of the majority party, but not all of them. More than a dozen House Democrats ultimately voted against it.
Education officials and key state lawmakers have said concerns that some of the initiative language is vague or could cause confusion among local school leaders can likely be addressed through guidance offered through the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Key Democrats in the legislature vowed to keep a close eye on the implementation of the policies within the initiative, and take follow-up legislative action as necessary in 2025.
Income Tax Ban
The final measure on its way to becoming law is I-2111, which bans the state and local governments from creating any new personal income tax.
A personal income tax hasn’t been proposed by lawmakers because there are strict constitutional limits around what one could look like in the state, but Democrats have expressed interest in changing the state’s tax code so that it falls less on the shoulders of low-wealth and low-income people.
Supporters of I-2111 say the measure sends a clear message that Washingtonians don’t want a personal income tax. The state briefly had one during the Great Depression, but since then, voters have rejected various proposals that sought to create one.
Unlike regular bills, the initiatives do not go to the governor to be signed into law. Instead, the three initiatives that have gained legislative approval will go to the Secretary of State to be certified. The measures will become law in early June.
There are also three remaining initiatives – concerning carbon credit auctions, a long-term health care payroll tax, and a capital gains tax – that weren’t taken up by the legislature and are heading to voters’ ballots this fall.
