According to the Washington State Patrol, “fleds” — law enforcement’s term for criminals fleeing crimes with no police pursuit — more than doubled from 2021 to 2022. And no wonder, considering that in 2021, Gov. Jay Inslee signed a law restricting the conditions under which police may pursue a vehicle to cases in which probable cause can be established with certainty.
With on-scene police officers unable to instantaneously establish probable cause, they hesitated. Criminals soon became confident the higher standard would protect them from pursuit. Increasingly unaccountable, miscreants thumbed their noses at law enforcement. Disrespect for the law then spread to noncriminals, some of whom now simply drive away from lawful traffic stops by police.
Reflecting the public’s exasperation with brazen crime, many leaders in both parties now agree that the 2021 probable cause standard went too far. So, in the 2023 session, reform of the vehicle pursuit standard — tilting it back toward “reasonable suspicion”— has bipartisan support for companion bills in the House (HB 1363) and Senate (SB 5352).
The measure’s wording restores a nuanced measure of empowerment to law enforcement: “A peace officer may not conduct a vehicular pursuit unless there is reasonable suspicion a person in the vehicle has committed or is committing a criminal offense and the safety risks of failing to apprehend or identify the person are considered to be greater than the safety risks of the vehicular pursuit under the circumstances.” The bill spells out safety conditions to be considered, such as speed, weather and traffic.
