Washington needs real police reform, not ‘what if’ hysteria about high-speed chases

Nina Fournier had no idea a terrible tragedy awaited her when she went to grab coffee on a recent Sunday morning. The Puyallup mother of two couldn’t have anticipated that another driver would smash her SUV at nearly 100 miles per hour — a driver so stoned on heroin, according to police reports, he was oblivious that he’d been in a collision.

Fournier, a 31-year-old former barista who began a dream career as a hairstylist last year, didn’t know her life — so ripe with possibility, so much open road ahead — would end suddenly March 7 while driving in the South Hill area where she grew up.

She certainly never imagined she’d be center stage in a legislative debate this week, as the Washington Senate on Tuesday approved a groundbreaking proposal to reform police tactics.

Among the changes: New limits on officers engaging in high-speed vehicle pursuits.

Republican opponents of the bill, including Sen. Chris Gildon of Puyallup, invoked Fournier’s story in an extended “what if?” scenario. What if police had spotted the man who killed her driving recklessly before the crash happened? What if they’d chased him down and removed him from the road?

“Perhaps if a law enforcement officer had seen him driving previously, and had been able to follow and pursue, then perhaps that tragedy would not have happened,” Gildon said.

And then the kicker: What if the new vehicle-pursuit rules had been in effect and police decided to let him go, against their better instincts?

It was a tangled web of speculation that played on emotions while playing down facts.

The reality is, the police-reform bill still allows cops to go after suspects in many situations, including when a person poses an imminent threat to the safety of others.

It also allows pursuits if there’s probable cause to believe someone in the vehicle committed a violent crime, a sex offense or an escape — or if there’s reasonable suspicion they’re driving under the influence.

If anything, the lengthy vehicle-pursuit section of the bill underscores an exhaustive process of give and take. Bipartisan negotiations resulted in a serious-minded police reform package.

We expect more of the same as a final version is hammered out between the House and Senate, before it’s sent to the governor.

House Bill 1054, sponsored by Democrat Rep. Jesse Johnson of Federal Way, is an ambitious undertaking that affects everything from neck restraints to tear gas, from the use of military equipment to the execution of search and arrest warrants.

It was born in the aftermath of last year’s shocking police custody deaths of two Black men, Manny Ellis in Tacoma and George Floyd in Minnesota.

Is it a flawless package? No. Does it achieve a perfect balance between protecting innocent civilians from abuses of force and giving law-abiding officers a full tool kit to subdue dangerous offenders? That’s impossible.

Any way you slice it, the bill leans toward stopping bad cops and unfortunately will leave some good ones feeling betrayed. But at this crossroads in history, when public trust in law enforcement has plummeted, particularly among people of color, HB1054 represents an important statement of principles and priorities.

Meanwhile, some concessions by majority Democrats — such as agreeing to study the use of off-leash police dogs, rather than banning them — have improved the bill.

As for chasing down fleeing vehicles, lawmakers are right to put limits on it. A report by the US Department of Justice found an average of nearly one pursuit-related crash death per day (355 per year) from 1996 to 2015. One third of those killed were occupants of an uninvolved vehicle or bystanders outside a vehicle.

Sen. David Frockt, D-Seattle, shared with senators Tuesday how he lost his 78-year-old grandparents in 1993; they were killed in a car wreck caused by police pursuing a different vehicle.

We believe this year’s sweeping police reform legislation should be adopted. Regardless where you stand on it, however, all Washingtonians should be able to agree on one goal: to prevent needless violence and death from striking people of all ages, races and backgrounds.

Especially those with so much open road ahead, like 33-year-old Manny Ellis or 31-year-old Nina Fournier.