Official Daily Action for Monday, March 14, 2022:
Today’s action was adapted from our friends at the Washington Coalition for Police Accountability.
It is currently legal for law enforcement to engage in a vehicle pursuit if there is probable cause to believe someone has committed a violent offense, a sex offense, or law enforcement has reasonable suspicion someone is under the influence.
The current law states a person must pose an “imminent threat” to the safety of others. Section 3 changes “Imminent threat” to “serious risk of harm”.
Listen to the Chair of Law and Justice Senator Manka Dhingra on why she did not recommend concurrence on the House amendments. https://tvw.org/video/legislative-democratic-caucuses-governor-jay-inslee-media-availability-2022031228/?eventID=2022031228&startStreamAt=581&stopStreamAt=726
ACTION 1: Ask Gov Inslee to veto Section 3 of ESHB 2037.
Phone: 360-902-4111
Governor’s Contact Form: https://www.governor.wa.gov/contact/contact/send-gov-inslee-e-message
Governor’s staff emails
➖Chief of Staff Jamila Taylor:
[email protected]
➖Exec. Dir. Legislative Affairs Drew Shirk:
[email protected]
➖General Counsel Kathryn Leathers:
[email protected]
➖Senior Policy Advisor Barbara Serrano:
[email protected]
➖Senior Policy Advisor RaShelle Davis:
[email protected]
Sample Letter:
I am writing to respectfully request your veto of Section 3 of ESHB 2037.
Over 100 organizations, including labor, faith, civil rights, and civil liberties advocates, opposed this bill, and thousands of people registered their opposition as it was being debated in the House and Senate policy committees.
Last year’s HB 1310 was deliberately written to address discriminatory policing and reduce violence. Racial bias exists in policing in Washington state and the expanded authority in EHSB 2037 to use force will fall on BIPOC communities.
ACTION 2. Thank our Senate Champions for opposing SB 5919.
Sample Letter
Dear Sen._________,
My name is _____ and I am a constituent of the _______ district. I want to thank you for opposing SB 5919, and for allowing yourself to be led by facts and data, not a bad faith misinformation campaign.
I’m disappointed to see so many of your colleagues vote to roll back the reforms we passed just last year. Following the passage of last year’s reforms, police killings in our state declined by 60%. That’s significant!! We should be moving forward, not backwards.
Thank you for standing with impacted families and communities impacted by discriminatory policing. Next year, I hope we can expand on the reforms fought for in 2021.
Senator Emails:
