Inslee Signs Suite Of Police Accountability Bills

OLYMPIA, WA — Following the mass protests last summer and a national reckoning with police violence and systemic racism in America, Washington has now passed a dozen new bills aiming to increase police accountability in the Evergreen state.

Gov. Jay Inslee visited the Eastside Community Center in Tacoma Tuesday, where he signed all 12 pieces of legislation into law.

“The crises of the past year have unmasked long-standing inequities in our society. The consciousness of our state and nation has been raised against inequity in many forms,” Inslee said. “Our moral mandate to acknowledge these hard truths crystallized in the fallout from the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, and the killing of Manny Ellis in Tacoma. The bills I am signing today respect these truths and lay a solid foundation to halt inequity’s pernicious influence in our systems of government.”

Inslee was joined by several police reform advocates including Katrina Johnson, the cousin of Charleena Lyles, a Seattle woman killed by police in June 2017.

“Today, we stand united in strength and bonded together in pain and blood," Johnson said. "We celebrate on this bill signing day, and tomorrow it is back to work on implementation."

Among the dozen bills Inslee signed was HB 1267, which will create a new Office of Independent Investigations — an agency serving under the governor, comprised of non-law enforcement personnel and tasked solely with reviewing incidents where police kill civilians.

The agency was inspired in part by an aborted investigation by the Pierce County Sheriff's Department last year, in which deputies had been tasked with investigating Manuel Ellis' death at the hands of Tacoma Police, only for it to be discovered months into their investigation that the sheriff's department had had a deputy on scene at the time of Ellis' killing, but had concealed that information. The ensuing backlash pushed Inslee to reassign the case to the Washington State Patrol, and set the stage for the creation of a new, more independent investigative agency.

Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards has advocated for change following Ellis' death, and issued a statement Wednesday thanking Inslee and other legislators for their work bringing the project to fruition. It reads, in part:

"I saw firsthand how the Coalition for Police Accountability, along with passionate community members and impacted families, have dedicated significant time and effort to the development of these bills, and I was honored to do my part in advocating for and supporting this legislation.

"While there is more to do, I’m hopeful that the systemic change sparked by this legislation will lead to the betterment of all of our communities and provide some small sense of comfort to the families who advocated for these changes."

A charging decision in Ellis's case is still pending.

In a similar vein to HB 1267, SB 5259 will create a first-of-its-kind database to track and log the use of force by police and other law enforcement agencies in Washington. The bill, sponsored by freshman Sen. T'wina Nobles (D-Fircrest) will create a publicly-available database tracking police incidents in which:

• Someone died.
• Someone was severely injured.
• An officer used force against a person, but the person did not die or suffer substantial bodily harm.
• An officer shot at gun, pointed a gun at a person, put someone in a chokehold, used a taser or pepper spray, hit someone with a club or baton, physically struck someone or rammed them with their patrol car.

“By collecting and reporting data, we have a critical opportunity to build community trust through transparency,” said Nobles. “The data captured by Senate Bill 5259 will enable better allocation of resources, and more effective assessment of current police reform strategies.”

Another high-profile bill signed by Inslee was HB 1054, which bans police from using chokeholds and neck restraints. It also restricts officers from initiating high-speed vehicle chases, and limits — but does not ban — the use of tear gas. Last summer, the City of Seattle also temporarily banned officers from using tear gas in response to a large public outcry.

Other highlights include HB 1310, which sets a standard for police use of force that requires officers to use "reasonable care" when deciding if physical force is appropriate, SB 5066, which demands officers intervene if they see another officer using excessive force, and HB 1089, which requires law enforcement agencies to better comply with state audits into deadly use of force.

The governor says that together, these bills could be a turning point for police reform, but one that will require everyone to follow through.

“I would remind people where all of this effort has brought us. It has brought us not to the end of something, but to a new beginning,” Inslee said. “All of our work remains ahead of us. Today we celebrate the blueprint this legislation codifies for the people of justice, and now it’s up to us to effectuate it.”