Olympia Police Chief Describes Huge Changes in Policing Dictated by New State Laws

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A dozen Washington state laws intending to reform policing took effect Sunday, and local police have been busy rewriting policies, training officers, and informing the public about the differences residents are likely to notice.

Olympia's interim Police Chief Aaron Jelcick meet with the city's Ad Hoc Public Safety Committee Thursday to explain how the Police Department is adapting to the new laws. A joint news release about the changes also was issued Friday by the police chiefs in Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater, Yelm, and Tenino, as well as Thurston County Sheriff John Snaza and The Evergreen State College Police Services.

At the ad hoc committee, Jelcick explained the 12 bills the legislature passed in the 2021 session, but went into greater detail on four bills:

* HB 1310, dictating police use of force.

* HB 1054, which creates requirements for police tactics.

* SB 5066, which makes officers intervene when another officer is using excessive force.

* SB 5476 which addresses how drug possession charges are handled after the State v. Blake State Supreme Court decision.

HB 1310 limits the circumstances in which a police officer can respond to a crime with force. Officers will now need to have probable cause before using force, including placing them in handcuffs.

Police can no longer detain people to investigate a crime unless they have probable cause that the person they're detaining committed the crime. Jelcick said this is a major change — officers in Washington state have been able to use force on suspects and detain them for investigations since the 1960s.

"It's going to take some adjustment for law enforcement," he said.

Under 1310, officers can only respond to calls reporting crimes, not ones requesting wellness checks or other "community caretaking" calls.

"This is a huge change," Jelcick said. Instead of a police cruiser showing up, crisis response units (CRU) or designated crisis responders (DCR) will be first at the scene. However, if the call escalates, the CRUs and DCRs can call law enforcement for backup and assistance.

Jelcick said that if DCRs or CRUs are not available to respond to a non-crime related call, police will stand by and observe the situation, but intervene only if it becomes a crime.

Mayor Pro-Tem Clark Gilman said at the committee meeting that he had heard stories about 911 dispatchers not reporting calls they had received because officers wouldn't be allowed to respond to the incident reported. Gilman asked how police are working with 911 dispatchers — which is a separate agency, and not part of a law enforcement agency — to make sure calls are recorded and responded to.

According to Jelcick, 911 dispatchers will begin to categorize non-crime calls as notes that will be passed on to police departments that can then relay them to DCRs, CRUs, or just monitor the situation themselves.

However, the joint news release from law enforcement pointed out non-police crisis response is not currently available countywide and "additional service gaps may occur since legislation was implemented before alternative services were established."

HB 1310 also regulates police by making internal police department policy legally binding. This means if officers violate department policy, they could be vulnerable to both civil and criminal lawsuits and put their police certification in jeopardy.

"By no means does this make any law enforcement officers in the state of Washington comfortable," Jelcick said.



Jelcick said other parts of 1310 — such as police being required to exhaust all deescalation methods before using force to detain an individual — are things OPD has already implemented.

Jelcick said HB 1054 regulating police tactics by banning choke holds and no knock warrants also already has been implemented by OPD and other departments in the region, "so that really doesn't change a whole heck of a lot."

But it also restricts police dogs to tracking suspects, not apprehending them. And it restricts the use of tear gas to riots and certain hostage situations. Jelcick said OPD has decided not to use tear gas anymore and turned over its supply to the Thurston County SWAT team.

Military equipment is also prohibited under the new law. Jelcick said this affects OPD only because they have had to remove two of non-lethal weapons from their arsenal: a shotgun that fires beanbag rounds and a grenade-launcher style weapon that fires 40mm rubber bullets, both meant to disable people.

Jelcick said the Washington State Association of Police Chiefs and Sheriffs is having conversations with legislators about bringing those two weapons back because officers can "use those before we use lethal force."

The bill also prohibits police from getting in vehicular pursuits unless they have probable cause to believe the person they're chasing committed a violent crime, a sex crime, or is driving under the influence. This is not a major change for OPD, Jelcick said. OPD officers do not pursue vehicles when they believe the driver is under the influence because of how dangerous it could be.

Under SB 5066, officers will be required to intervene when other officers use excessive force or are seen violating any use of force restrictions. This means officers may need to physically restrain other officers if they see them violating use of force laws. If not, both the officer engaged in excessive force and the officer who failed to intervene would be liable and could have their certifications rescinded.

Duty to intervene is already OPD policy, Jelcick said. "This is a good thing. We want accountability as much as anybody," he said. "If someone's doing something they shouldn't be doing, we want to know about it."

The last bill Jelcick spoke about was SB 5476 which amends the Uniform Controlled Substances Act. The bill had to be drafted after the state Supreme Court ruled in State v. Blake that the state's simple drug possession law was unconstitutional. Because of the ruling and the new bill, drug possession will be a misdemeanor offense.

Rather than arresting people for possession or use of substances, officers will try to refer users to health care providers and substance abuse treatment centers. Jelcick said that it is not likely that there will be drug arrests made in the city of Olympia anymore. "Very few people will be incarcerated for drug offenses in the future," he said.

However, OPD will send referrals to the prosecutors office and if there are a troubling number of other referrals for the same offender, the prosecutor may decide to issue a summons to have that person appear in court. "We're going to get you into court to take care of this problem for you because you're not taking care of it yourself," Jelcick said.

Under the new law, prosecutors will be encouraged to divert drug cases away from jail or prison and instead refer cases to health care providers.

Most of the new laws took effect Sunday; SB 5476 began on July 1. According to Jelcick, OPD has updated 22 of its policies to be compliant with the new laws and spent roughly 500 hours making the updates and analyzing the laws.

Jelcick plans on making similar presentations to the Olympia Downtown Alliance, the Coalition of Neighborhood Associations and other groups to make sure the community is aware of the changes.

Jelcick said the department is looking for more non-lethal tools they can use. The department has ordered 12 new pepper ball guns to replace the bean bag shotgun and 40mm launcher, for example.

Jelcick said the department also may add a new staff member to oversee professional practices and all body camera footage from use of force cases gets reviewed.