Tacoma in the spotlight at Legislature’s hearings on police accountability
“I want you to know that this bill is the city of Tacoma’s top priority for the 2021 session,” Mayor Victoria Woodards testified Tuesday morning at hearings on police accountability bills before the House Public Safety Committee.
“We want strong, independent investigations. And, as was said so many times this morning by many speakers, Tacoma speaks from a place of experience — from the Manny Ellis case to what happened this past weekend.”
Three days before Tuesday’s hearings, video captured a Tacoma police officer in a police SUV plowing through a group of people who were in downtown Tacoma watching a street race. Two people were injured.
Last March, Ellis died of a lack of oxygen while being restrained by Tacoma police officers as he was being arrested, the Pierce County medical examiner ruled.
On Tuesday, Woodards joined a chorus of testifiers who weighed in on two bills aimed at law enforcement reform.
The push to reform policing this session was strong long before last weekend, with several bills already in motion. Throughout the two public hearings Tuesday, testifiers and lawmakers evoked the fresh memory and the issues it raises.
One lawmaker in particular — Republican Rep. Jenny Graham of Spokane — questioned testifiers about the conduct that drew police to downtown Tacoma in the first place. At one point, she asked King County Council member Girmay Zahilay if he condoned “the behavior of the individuals that surrounded that officer’s car and were violently beating on it,” after Zahilay talked about the video and investigation in testimony.
“At what point are these officers supposed to be able to take care of themselves when a crowd is around their car being violent? Are they supposed to just stay there and take it? What would you do?” Graham asked.
“I would not plow through a crowd of people when I’m in a vehicle and people are on foot,” Zahilay responded. “That’s one thing that I can tell you that I wouldn’t do. I believe that officers should be trained to respond to situations like that. I did not see steps that I, as a commonsense person, would have taken in that situation.”
Later on, the chair of the House Public Safety Committee, Rep. Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland, cut Graham off while she was asking a testifier if street racing was a crime.
‘Ultimately, the legitimacy of our system is in the balance’
References to Tacoma peppered hearings on both bills Tuesday. Zahilay testified in support of legislation that would require jurisdictions to establish community oversight boards. It was especially prominent during the other bill’s hearing.
That bill would set up an Office of Independent Investigations within the Governor’s Office to investigate use of deadly force among other incidents involving law enforcement. That bill is the one for which Woodards expressed her strong support.
Sponsored by Rep. Debra Entenman, D-Kent, the bill is based on recommendations from Gov. Jay Inslee’s Task Force on Independent Investigations of Police Use of Force that convened in June 2020.
The group was formed after the disclosure that the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation into Manuel Ellis’ death even though one of its deputies was on the scene, Entenman said at the hearing.
That was a violation of Initiative 940, she said, which bans agencies from investigating their own officers.
It was the first use-of-force case in Pierce County to be investigated after I-940 went into effect last January. The case drew criticism from state officials, The News Tribune previously reported, and drew attention to the lack of oversight for agencies investigating uses of force.
Inslee ultimately ordered the Washington State Patrol to launch a new investigation into Ellis’ death.
Under the bill, which came at Inslee’s request, the new agency would create regional teams that could respond quickly to incidents of deadly force. The governor would appoint a director and advisory board representing specific interests, and the director would hire investigators and personnel.
Investigators can’t be commissioned law enforcement officers employed by an agency when they apply unless approved by the advisory board, a nonpartisan bill analysis states. Personnel would be trained “on the history of racism in policing, implicit and explicit bias, intercultural competency, antiracism, undoing institutional racism, and the use of a racial equity lens.”
James Bible, attorney for the Ellis family, spoke at the hearing about the insufficiency of the Ellis investigation and emphasized the importance of an independent investigation into what happened in Tacoma last weekend.
“Ultimately, the legitimacy of our system is in the balance,” Bible said. “It is in the balance because if we don’t have independent investigation of our public servants, if we simply allow them to investigate themselves, then the legitimacy of our determinations will forever be in question.”
Loved ones of victims of police violence spoke in support of the bill, including Katrina Johnson, the cousin of Charleena Lyles, who was killed by Seattle police in her apartment in 2017. Johnson was part of the governor’s task force.
She also related the Ellis death investigation to actions being taken now in Tacoma. The case last weekend has been turned over to the Pierce County Force Investigation Team, according to city officials.
“What happened in Tacoma ... with the murder of Manuel Ellis and the cover-up by Tacoma police and Pierce County Sheriff’s Office is unacceptable,” Johnson said. “And now we have a team of investigators in Pierce County investigating the Tacoma officer who drove his patrol car through a crowd on Saturday night.
“The conversation around this incident is troubling. People act as though street racing is a capital crime. Well, it’s not. I live in Tacoma. We deserve better. We demand police and elected officials do better than this.”
Joseph Martino, director of an agency in Ontario, Canada, that is similar to what this bill would create, shared the obstacles his agency faced after its creation in 1990. On the whole, he said, the work has “advanced the cause of police-community relations, especially among Ontario’s Black and Indigenous communities.”
“What can be said with some confidence today is that the unit today forms part of the very fabric of the justice system in Ontario and it is recognized as such,” Martino said.
A few groups representing law enforcement — the Washington State Fraternal Order of Police, Washington State Patrol Troopers Association and the Washington Council of Police and Sheriffs — spoke in opposition to the bill, pointing to specific objections and mentioning the work already invested in implementing I-940.
Teresa Taylor with the Washington Council of Police and Sheriffs, for example, advocated looking at the still-new program for investigating use-of-force to decide where improvement is needed and whether more reform is necessary.
Spike Unruh with the Troopers Association advocated for the creation of a state body that oversees investigations to ensure they’re fair, thorough and independent.
The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs presented ideas to improve the bill while taking a position of “other,” rather than support or opposition.
Woodards was the last to testify on the independent investigations bill.
She called it “the cornerstone of transforming the system of policing” in the state, from Tacoma’s perspective. It would be even better if the incident Saturday could be investigated by a statewide agency to continue to ensure its independence, she said.
“Our community has lost its trust, and it’s up to us to rebuild their trust by hearing them and doing what they are demanding,” the mayor said. “And that’s why this bill is so important to us.”
This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
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