Gig Harbor chief says he is opposed to bills that ban no-knock warrants, limit immunity
A series of police reform bills are currently making their way through the state legislature, seeking to rein in use of force and hold police officers accountable for abuses.
Gig Harbor Police Chief Kelly Busey says some of the bills make sense, but others go too far.
“There are a lot of bills that were introduced this session under the guise of police reform,” Busey said. “They were far, far overreaching, to the point of being punitive towards law enforcement.”
One of the bills, House Bill 1054, would ban vascular neck restraints that can lead to a dangerous loss of oxygen. Busey said he agrees with that, and his department has already abandoned that practice.
But the same bill would also ban “no-knock” warrants that do not require police to announce themselves or provide any warning when entering the home of someone they consider a suspect. The Gig Harbor chief thinks that’s too restrictive.
“I think that no-knock warrants do have a purpose,” Busey said. “I can see in extremely rare instances where a no-knock search would probably be safer for an officer.”
‘Open season’ on lawsuits
Busey also expressed concerns about House Bill 1202, a bill that would allow individuals to sue a police officer or agency for violating their rights and make it easier for them to recover damages if they’re injured as a result of police misconduct.
The current legal reality is what is known as “qualified immunity,” which often shields officials from liability for police misconduct. Supporters of the bill say it offers average citizens legal recourse.
HB1202 “has nothing to do with police reform, it is just open season on suing cops,” Busey said. “Officers need a certain amount of protection to go out and do their duties.”
Busey called much of the statewide legislation “disastrous, ” though he added that some bills became “somewhat reasonable” in his eyes following a series of amendments. Busey considers some of the bills to be fronts for what he considers “punitive” restrictions on police officers.
The chief said some lawmakers were seeking to punish all of law enforcement “for the errant actions of a few,” a reference to instances where Black people have died at the hands of police officers.
“The poster child for that is the George Floyd incident, right? Where all of a sudden we have a lot of attention drawn to how bad the police are and we’re neglecting the fact that that was an outlier event,” Busey said. “It was not indicative that most law enforcement conduct their job day to day in a very positive and constructive manner.”
But Maurice Hanks, a 57-year-old Black Fox Island resident and former coach at Peninsula high, says that the incidents of police brutality are not outliers, but signs of systemic problems that still need to be addressed.
Reformers point to the death of Manuel Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man who died from lack of oxygen after being restrained by Tacoma police on March 3 of last year.
“Walk a day, walk a week, as a Black man in society and you would know what it feels like,” Hanks said. “Being a parent of a Black kid, you are absolutely scared all the time.”
Warrants and neck holds
Renewed criticism of no-knock warrants came following the death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was shot and killed by police in Kentucky after they executed such a warrant at her boyfriend’s home.
Busey expressed concerns that if police were to knock and announce it could turn into a hostage situation. But it should be used rarely, he added. Busey said that he has “used one no-knock warrant in his entire career” and it was not in Gig Harbor.
“I think it is a tool that we have to have in our toolbag that is used in extremely rare instances, but I think the tool has to be there,” Busey said.
Speaking of neck restraints, Gig Harbor police have already banned the practice, a decision Busey told The News Tribune last year was one he made internally.
“I was never fully comfortable with the carotid restraint (even when I was briefly trained in the academy in 1991), and I knew it was still within our policy,” Busey said in an email at the time. “With recent scrutiny of the appearance of those sorts of techniques, coupled with the knowledge that we had nobody trained in it, I felt it was best to just remove it as an option.”
Lawsuit immunity
But the chief said he was “vehemently opposed” to removing qualified immunity from police officers.
Busey said his officers “shouldn’t have to stop and worry about their exposure to unencumbered lawsuits.”
Leslie Cushman, a member of the Washington Coalition for Police Accountability, says that “HB 1202 is about access to justice, and it is preventative — it will deter police misconduct.” Qualified immunity offers too much protection to officers and could prevent them from being held accountable for misconduct, proponents of HB 1202 say.
But Busey said he is concerned about what he calls “frivolous” lawsuits that he claims could impact city budgets and discourage people from wanting to become police officers.
“It’s going to make officers not want to do their jobs. Who is going to want to be a cop in ten years if this comes into play?” Busey said.
Busey believes police officers should be given this additional layer of legal protection because “no other job has the responsibilities we have.”
“Nobody else is charged with using force to protect others. Nobody else is charged with taking away people’s liberties,” Busey said. “To do that, we need the tools and the confidence to be able to go out and do that job.
“Do we want bad officers? Absolutely not, no way. I’m not trying to protect any sort of misconduct at all. I’m looking out for the good cops that are going to go out there and do their job and then all of a sudden a frivolous lawsuit shows up in their mailbox naming them personally.”
Unwritten code
Hanks said police need the public looking over their shoulder.
“There is an unwritten code. It is just like being on the football team, you don’t tell on the other players. You ‘fix it’ amongst yourselves, but they don’t fix it,” Hanks said. “Everyone knows it, no one wants to talk about it. That’s how it is.”
Hanks said he has doubts about whether city police departments like Gig Harbor are capable of reforming themselves where needed.
“When you talk about reform and doing things like that, you have to really want to make a change,” Hanks said. “How do you have police look after themselves?”
Police departments can and do reform themselves, Busey argued. In an email, Busey said the department is “always in a constant state of analyzing the way we do business.”
Busey cited recent reforms in Gig Harbor like body cameras, emotional intelligence screening in hiring, changes regarding shooting at moving vehicles, and modified impound procedures.
“I don’t look at reform as making a one-time series of changes; I look at it as continual scrutiny of the way we operate in a way to be better. This includes current training and tactics, as well as policy and procedures,” Busey said.
“It includes the purchase and implementation of additional less-lethal force options. It includes combining pursuit training with defensive tactics and a related discussion on controlling emotions at the end of a vehicle chase. It includes our disaster response planning and execution of those plans. It includes recruiting in other parts of the country to try and bring a more diverse workforce to our department. The list goes on.”
This story was originally published March 8, 2021 at 5:30 AM.
