Washington State Governor and former presidential candidate Jay Inslee doesn’t care about defunding the police, he has a multi-million dollar, taxpayer-funded private security team to protect him while state residents are left to fend for themselves following new laws enacted by Inslee that severely limit law enforcement capabilities.
Inslee called the bills a “moral mandate” that “are all going to work in coordination with one another to create a system of accountability and integrity stronger than anywhere else in the nation,” when signing the legislation into law according to NPR.
The most consequential changes to come from the mandate will impact how officers respond to calls from HB 1054 and HB 1310, otherwise known as the “use of force bill.” Under the nanny state rule, officers are no longer permitted to make arrests based on “reasonable suspicion”, they instead must establish “probable cause”.
The new rule almost begs criminals to commit crimes because there is little likelihood they will be held accountable.
“This is changing completely the way we’ve responded to some of these calls … and there will be some calls that we just absolutely don’t respond to from here on out. It’s going to change the level of service we give to our citizens. Not because we want to, but because we have to,” Moses Lake Police Chief Kevin Fuhr warned The Post Millennial.
Victims of violent crime will experience the most devastating impact from the new laws. Police are no longer allowed to pursue suspects who have committed property crimes, domestic violence, assault, violation of a no-contact order and stalking.
In stark contrast, Governor Inslee’s protection detail costs Washington taxpayers an annual average of $2,886,240.00 and another $1,815,456 on average for contracted legislative and capital campus security services according to a public disclosure request provided to The Post Millennial.
“The largest impact for our residents will be the changes to our ability to pursue after a suspect who is fleeing in a vehicle. Law enforcement officers will only be able to engage in a pursuit if there is ‘probable cause’ to arrest a person in the vehicle for committing a specified violent crime or sex offense such as murder, kidnapping, drive-by shootings, or rape,” the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
The Sheriff’s office described a situation under the new order where “dispatchers receive a 911 call from a person who reports hearing screaming and loud noises from an apartment next door. The caller reports that it sounds like the woman next door is being assaulted by her boyfriend, but is only able to provide a vague description of what the boyfriend looks like and does not know his name. As the first responding officer approaches the apartment, he sees a man running through the parking lot wearing clothing that is similar to the description provided in the 911 call.”
Before July 25, the officer could have used physical force if necessary to detain the suspected man based on reasonable suspicion that he committed the domestic violence assault and was fleeing the scene.
Now, however, the officer must let the man go until “they can interview the victim and/or witnesses to determine with a high level of certainty that a crime has occurred and the person is a suspect in that crime”.
The Sheriff’s office notes that “physical force” was not defined in the new law, but the current definition has a broad scope and “is viewed in a large variety of ways depending on each police department’s policy – this can range from holding someone’s arm, placing someone in handcuffs, pulling someone from a vehicle, grabbing someone during a foot pursuit, etc.”
Since going into effect, the new laws have already prevented law enforcement from pursuing a domestic violence perpetrator who threatened to kill the victim, her two young children, and his mother according to the Post Millennial.
On the scene of another crime, deputies could not pursue a murder suspect because they had yet to establish probable cause, they only had a suspect description.
“It’s unfortunate to see misinterpretations of the law”, Inslee’s office told the Post Millennial of the devastating consequences seen thus far stemming from his own legislation.
Washington State is not immune from the national uptick in crime and reached a record-high homicide rate in 2020. Inslee’s reforms will leave Washington residents more vulnerable with a disempowered police force, setting the perfect storm for a crime surge.
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Kay Apfel is a writer for BizPac Review. A news junkie turned conservative politico, Kay currently resides in Washington, DC.
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