Statement on the Passage of I-2113
March 4, 2024, OLYMPIA, WA – The Washington Coalition for Police Accountability (WCPA) opposed the substantive change in state law in Initiative 2113, which was passed in the state legislature today.
The state-wide policy on vehicular pursuits enacted by the Washington state legislature in 2021 and revised in 2023 was based on best practices developed by law enforcement and written specifically to restrict pursuits to serious crimes against persons. The initiative, on the other hand, does not restrict pursuits based on the type of violation at all.
“We opposed this substantive change in state law,” said Interim Executive Director Dr. Gary Damon, Jr., “as we believe it will lead to more injuries, more deaths, and increased collateral damage, without any benefit to public safety such as solving crimes or reducing lawlessness.”
Moving forward must include adopting evidence-based approaches to the policy setting on this tactic. WCPA supports the legislature’s decision to start the formal collection of data on vehicular pursuits, as directed in the 2024 supplemental operating budget. This includes identifying what data needs to be gathered and how and who should manage that data. Having a common foundation of data on pursuits will help focus future policy discussions on vehicular pursuits.
WCPA’s steadfast commitment to the long-lasting and permanent transformation of policing for the safety of the public continues. Police culture is at the heart of this and every interaction police have with the community should be based on the preservation of life and the humanity of the individual. WCPA will advocate for legislation such as HB 1445, which looks at agency-wide patterns of misconduct, HB 1513, which would end traffic stops for nonmoving violations, and HB 1579, which would establish a state-wide prosecutor for police use of deadly force. All Washingtonians deserve and should experience quality policing, at the agency level down to the use of specific tactics and protocols.
The Washington Coalition for Police Accountability’s (WCPA) mission is to reduce police violence and increase police accountability. These twin objectives require a focus at the system as well as the tactical level. In 2021 we advocated for a state-wide policy on vehicular pursuits because first, police pursuits had resulted in the violent death of innocent people such as Giovonn Joseph McDade who had committed no crime, and second, based on the data we were collecting, deaths from pursuits were the second leading cause of police-involved fatalities, with deaths from firearms at number one.
