A bill establishing a state office to investigate police use-of-force incidents passed the Legislature last week and is on track to be signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee before the session concludes.
House Bill 1267 will create an Office of Independent Investigations to look into officer-involved cases involving deadly force, injury or sexual assault. Lawmakers from Clark County voted with their parties — the Democrats from the 49th Legislative District were in support, and the Republicans from the 17th and 18th districts were in opposition.
“It’s become more clear to us in the last couple of years — and I would even say the last 48 hours — how important it is to have a law enforcement (investigations) department and process that the community understands and trusts,” Rep. Monica Stonier, D-Vancouver, said Friday.
“These processes are a huge part of that; I’m a little surprised that we haven’t done this sooner.”
The legislation, one of several police reform bills introduced this year, has been bouncing between the House and the Senate since early March and passed through both chambers. The House passed the Senate’s revised version of the legislation 56-41 in a concurrence vote on Thursday.
Stonier and Rep. Sharon Wylie, D-Vancouver, were in support; Republican Reps. Paul Harris, Vicki Kraft, Larry Hoff and Brandon Vick voted in opposition.
Hoff said he voted against the bill because he believes establishing an independent statewide office is unnecessary. The current process for investigating police use-of-force incidents, conducted through the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, is “more than sufficient,” he said.
“I guess initially the intent is sound. Anytime there is a deadly force incident it needs to be investigated,” Hoff said. “I just think it’s a redundant piece of legislation.”
Under current state law, the investigative process is spearheaded by the Criminal Justice Training Commission. Immediately following a use-of-force incident, law enforcement agencies are required to disclose the situation to the commission, which in turn assembles a team of police investigators, crime scene specialists and at least two unaffiliated community representatives to look into the case.
The team can’t include anyone from the involved department, but can include law enforcement from the same region. For example, following the fatal October shooting of Andrew Williams by the Vancouver Police Department, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office led the Southwest Washington Independent Investigative Response Team that looked into the incident. Four months later, the roles were reversed — the VPD led the investigation of the CCSO’s fatal shooting of Jenoah Donald in February.
Investigators “go in there with eyes wide open. They are law enforcement individuals that have the expertise to do investigations, as opposed to a citizen commission that goes in to look at policies and procedures,” Hoff said. “This bill grows government for no reason.”
The new office, which will be under the purview of the governor, will include an investigative team as well as an advisory committee made up of stakeholders outside law enforcement — policy experts, members of marginalized communities and family members of people impacted by police tactics.
“Any time I talk to law enforcement officers, they all agree that a process the community can trust is really important. It’s just a matter of what that looks like, and whose opinion that is,” Stonier said. “Doing it at the state level really harnesses the expertise of those who specialize in that work.”
