Votes against watered-down police pursuit bill

After failing to vote on its own police-pursuit fix, the Democrat-led state House of Representatives recently acted on the proposal sent over from the Senate. After amending the legislation, the House passed Senate Bill 5352 by a vote of 57-40.

The watered-down version received final approval in the Senate today with a concurrence vote of 26-22 and now heads to the governor’s desk. State Sen. Judy Warnick argues the “fix” doesn’t go far enough to correct the sweeping changes to police-pursuit tactics enacted by the 2021 Legislature that have contributed to a sharp increase in crime across the state.

Warnick, R-Moses Lake, issued the following statement on passage of the measure.

“The Legislature’s most important task this session is to address public safety in a meaningful way, and what was passed doesn’t come close to fixing the problem. The changes made in the House failed to improve the ability for law enforcement to keep our communities safe. While a partial solution is better than none at all, our communities deserve more than just a step in the right direction when it comes to restoring public safety.

“The public and our law enforcement have been clear about how we can stem the tide of lawlessness we are seeing. They aren’t asking us for more and higher taxes, or regulations that will increase costs to feed and house their families. They want to know that the police can respond to crimes happening in their communities and that suspects can’t just terrorize them without repercussions.”