Officials from over 100 cities and towns signed on to AWC’s letter urging the Legislature to take action to revise the restrictions of police vehicle pursuits and provide funding to help ensure the public safety needs of Washington residents. Please share this letter with your legislators.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to sign the letter and support this effort. Washingtonians need a reasonable suspicion standard fix now to the vehicular pursuit law and more funding and best practices for law enforcement departments to use.

We need cities to continue to reach out to their legislators to urge action on both of these bills. It is not enough for the legislature to just adopt provisions for a model policy or to study the issue further, we need immediate action this session to revise the restrictions on pursuits.

AWC urges the legislature to pass both:

• HB 1363 includes an appropriate balance between providing law enforcement with the tools need to pursue dangerous suspects, while focusing on appropriate and necessary safety standards.
• SSB 5533 contains proposals to create a model policy around police pursuits and new grant funding to help police departments implement new technologies for tracking vehicles.

If you have questions or comments to share with AWC, please contact Candice Bock directly at candiceb@awcnet.org.

Need a refresher?

Check out AWC's article that goes into more depth on both bills.

Dates to remember

HB 1363 is scheduled for executive session in the House Community Safety, Justice & Reentry committee on February 14 at 4 pm and February 16 at 8 am.

SB 5533 is scheduled for public hearing in the Senate Ways & Means committee on Tuesday, February 14 at 4 pm.