Surprise Senate move keeps vehicular pursuits bill alive

With the House stalling on their law enforcement vehicular pursuits legislation, the Senate took decisive action to pass SB 5352 just before the Wednesday deadline, pulling their dormant bill straight to the floor for a vote.

For most of the session, HB 1363 has been the vehicle for revising the police pursuits statute to include a “reasonable suspicion” standard, striking a more appropriate balance between providing law enforcement with the tools needed to pursue dangerous suspects while focusing on appropriate and necessary safety standards. But the bill became bogged down after some legislators tied it to HB 1513, which restricts when police can make traffic stops for non-moving violations. It looked like it would take a lot to get anything on vehicular pursuits done in the House by Wednesday’s 5 pm House of Origin cutoff deadline.

With just hours to go before the deadline, the Senate – in a rarely used procedural move – pulled their previously dead companion of the vehicular pursuits bill straight to the floor for a vote. SB 5352 had never been scheduled for a hearing prior to the floor vote. Senator Dhingra introduced a striker that is virtually identical to the most recent version of HB 1363, including limiting the types of crimes that could warrant a pursuit. The amended bill adds vehicular assault and certain domestic violence offenses to the list of crimes for which police are authorized to pursue. Notably, SB 5352 does not include the 2025 sunset date that we had seen in HB 1363.

SB 5352 passed in a close 26-23 vote (with mixed Democratic and Republican votes both for and against) and now heads to the House. AWC needs cities to reach out to your House members to urge them to support SB 5352 and ask their leadership to ensure the bill will be voted on. While we are encouraged by the Senate’s last-minute actions, the bill still has a considerable way to go if it will be enacted into law this session.