Washington State Senate comes to the rescue on police pursuit legislation

Everyone in Renton who’s frustrated with our escalating crime rates should watch the above brief video in which Senator Mark Mullet (D, 5th District, Issaquah) makes an impactful speech in yesterday’s State Senate debate on police pursuit.  Senator Mullet brings honor and intelligence to this debate, and specifically expresses the needs of our city even though he only has a small part of Renton in a corner of his district.  Senator Mullet deserves Renton’s gratitude.

Thanks in part to Senator Mullet’s critical support and his compelling speech to the full chamber, the State senate surprised many of us by getting SB 5352 approved in the full chamber (26 to 23) after it had languished in committee for many weeks.  This bill will now go back to the House, where the legislators had just buried their own version of the bill the day before.  They would ordinarily now consider this Senate bill (unless opponents devise a way to procedurally bury it), and Renton officials and residents should encourage them to pass it.

SB 5352 is significantly watered-down version of the original senate bill, and still leaves many situations where the police will not be able to pursue when they could have three years ago.  For example, they still would not be able to chase a stolen car under the bill, unless they had further evidence of a crime or DUI in progress.  But it makes the standards for judging these situations more reasonable for officers, so the bill is a step in the right direction.

The bill was heavily watered-down to get the compromise needed to pull it from Sen. Manka Dhingra’s (D-Redmond) Law & Justice Committee and get it to the senate floor.  Because the bill was watered down, some republican senators that want to restore police pursuit voted no on it, indicating it did not go far enough.  They were joined in opposition by far-left democrats who felt it went too far.  So yesterday’s senate victory can be seen as sensible pragmatists from both parties overcoming the extreme wings of their parties to make our state a little safer.  It’s a refreshing sight.

Most of the Senate democrats voting in support of this bill have districts in South King County, where the crime rates have been the most devastating since the 2021 limitation on police pursuit was enacted.  Renton’s own Senator, Bob Hasegawa (D, 11th) was unfortunately not among them. Senator Hasegawa voted against the bill as I suspected he would based on his letter to the district.  This made Senator Mark Mullet’s impassioned speech on Renton’s behalf even more important, and I thank him for it.

Since the bill will now go back to the House, it’s important to let your house representative know how you feel about this bill:  You can email your 11th district representatives at:

steve.bergquist@leg.wa.gov

David.Hackney@leg.wa.gov

If you wish to thank Senator Mullet for his support, he can be reached here:

mark.mullet@leg.wa.gov