Good reason to change police use of force law
The police killing of a Seattle woman on June 18 is reviving some Washington lawmakers’ interest in changing the state law on officers’ use of force.
The stalled proposal would remove the legal requirement that an officer show malice, or evil intent, before he or she can be held criminally liable in a shooting.
This standard is the most extreme in the nation and needs to be changed — for reasons of public safety and public trust, which is an element of effective policing.
Lawmakers are back in town this week and on a mission to pass a two-year budget by Friday’s midnight deadline in order to avert a government shutdown. While here, they should pass the use-of-force reform.
As recrafted previously by Sen. David Frockt, D-Seattle, Substitute Senate Bill 5073 removes the state’s malice standard and replaces it with a good faith exemption for officers. This would be defined by what a reasonable officer would do in a similar situation, and both the Thurston County prosecutor Jon Tunheim and Olympia’s police chief, Ronnie Roberts, have favored the concept.
Lacey’s police chief, Dusty Pierpoint, agrees. He’s willing to give up the malice exemption but not the good faith exemption for officers who are routinely placed in harm’s way.
The legislation includes a training element and state funds to help local police departments pay for officer retraining in de-escalation techniques.
In the shooting of Charleena Lyles, who had mental illness and was witnessed holding a knife when she answered the door of her Seattle apartment after reporting a burglary, there are questions about why one of the responding Seattle officers did not carry his Taser, or stun gun, as required.
The Senate proposal ensures that when police cross the line and act negligently they can be held accountable. Some police officers oppose the legislation because members fear it could reduce their safety.
The proposed legislation grew out of recommendations of a task force that met last year. The task force was created after a lobbying campaign by the Black Alliance of Thurston County and allies. The alliance was itself revived by the 2015 officer-involved shootings of two black men in West Olympia after a report of shoplifting and a confrontation in which the officer believed they would strike him with their skateboards.
A Thurston County jury convicted the men last month of third-degree assault of the officer. They await sentencing on July 14.
The Black Alliance is part of a group that is preparing to launch a citizen initiative that would go further than the proposed legislative compromise.
Whether there was malice in the fatal shooting of Lyles is not the issue here. It varies by locale but the public distrusts police in many communities. Assurance that officers are held accountable when they act recklessly can help win public trust.
Good officers exercise good judgment. A change in the law won’t affect them, but it can help build the public trust need to help police keep our communities safe.
This story was originally published June 27, 2017 at 8:27 PM with the headline "Good reason to change police use of force law."