Earlier this month, officials from over 100 Washington cities and towns signed on to AWC’s letter urging the Legislature to take action to revise the restrictions of police pursuits, and legislators heard your voices. HB 1363, sponsored by Alicia Rule (D–Blaine) was voted out of committee last week. While the amended version of HB 1363 is not the full solution we are requesting, this is a significant step forward in this issue.

The House Community Safety, Justice, & Reentry Committee amended HB 1363 to allow vehicular pursuits when there is reasonable suspicion that a person in the vehicle has committed or is committing one of the following crimes:

• A violent offense
• A sex offense
• A vehicular assault
• Assault involving domestic violence
• An escape
• A DUI

Further, as amended, HB 1363 would limit vehicular pursuits to situations when the person being pursued poses a serious risk of harm to others and is necessary for the purpose of identifying or apprehending the person being pursued. Additionally, the amended bill requires jurisdictions with 10 or more commissioned officers to notify and coordinate with a supervising officer. Jurisdictions with less than 10 commissioned officers would be required to notify the on-call supervisor.

Importantly, the bill was amended to add a sunset provision. All provisions in HB 1363 related to vehicular pursuits would sunset on July 1, 2025. While this means the debate will resume in Olympia in two years, this provides an immediate fix to the issue and allows for two years to collect data demonstrating that this fix works.

AWC is encouraged HB 1363 is continuing to move forward. Cities still need to reach out to legislators and ask them to support this bill because it still faces opposition and a difficult path to full passage.

Meanwhile, HB 1586, which creates a work group in the Criminal Justice Training Commission (CJTC) to establish a model vehicular pursuit policy, was also passed out of the House Community Safety, Justice, & Reentry Committee. A similar Senate version, SB 5533, creating a model policy as well as a grant program, was heard in the Senate Ways & Means Committee last week. AWC supports SB 5533 as companion effort to HB 1363, but not as a standalone solution.

Dates to remember

HB 1363 is scheduled for public hearing in the House Transportation Committee on Monday, February 20 at 1:30 pm.

HB 1586 is scheduled for public hearing in the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, February 22 at 1:30 pm and for executive session in the same committee on Friday, February 24 at 9 am.