Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders defended his office's pursuit policies in a Facebook post Wednesday, a day after a chase ended in an injury collision.
"It's no secret the last few weeks have been rough here in Thurston County," Sanders said in his post. "There are a few allegations that need to be clarified, however, as it pertains to TCSO policy and practice towards pursuits."
A deputy pursued a driver in a stolen truck on Black Lake Boulevard Tuesday after the truck sped past. The deputy briefly lost sight of the truck and then found it after a two-vehicle wreck that injured several people, according to a Sheriff's Office news release.
Notably, a motorcyclist also crashed and died near Olympia last Friday after being pursued by Yelm police, Nisqually Tribal Police and Thurston County Sheriff's deputies, according to another recent news release.
Sanders' post said his office does not have what some have claimed is a "pursue at all costs mindset." He said deputies recently have stopped more than half of the pursuits they have started due to public safety concerns.
"We don't discuss these terminated pursuits very often for the simple reason that we do not want criminals to understand what goes into the decision making or they will simply invoke that specific issue every time to get away," Sanders said.
As an example, Sanders said his office could create a public policy that deputies must stop their pursuits if the vehicle they are following exceeds 100 miles per hour. In that case, he said he believes fleeing drivers would simply aim for that benchmark for "guaranteed escape."
Additionally, Sanders disputed a claim that his deputies are not required to weigh the risk to the public when making pursuit decisions. He said county policy and state law require deputies to weigh that risk.
"Compliance with the statute and policy is enforced by a requirement that the footage from every pursuit is reviewed by a supervisor to ensure decisions being made by deputies are appropriate and within policy," Sanders said.
Law enforcement officers currently can pursue a car if they have reason to suspect someone inside the vehicle violated the law in any way, according to RCW 10.116.060.
However, the law also states officers must consider if the person they are pursuing poses a threat to the safety of others, and whether the safety risks of failing to apprehend or identify the person is greater than the safety risks of the vehicle pursuit under the given circumstances.
The law used to be stricter. A previous version allowed pursuits only if law enforcement had probable cause that someone in the car committed violent crimes, sex crimes, vehicular assault, domestic violence, attempting to escape custody or driving under the influence.
Those restrictions went into effect in 2021 and proved controversial enough to prompt changes. In response, the legislature passed a bill to reduce the evidentiary threshold for officers to engage in vehicular pursuits from probable cause to reasonable suspicion.
Earlier this year, legislators passed Initiative 2113, which removed the restrictions that limited pursuits to certain crimes. The new law went into effect on June 6. Sanders was among the initiative's supporters.
In his Wednesday post, Sanders said his office has pursued 69 fleeing vehicles since June 6. Deputies terminated 38 of those pursuits and captured 31 total suspects, he said.
Since the law has changed, Sanders said he believes "we are dealing with an intersection of consequences."
He said three years of the stricter law "clearly outlined" that fleeing in cars was an effective means to avoid capture and "led to an explosion of stolen cars."
He also said a drug epidemic has put more impaired criminals behind the wheel, and Washington state has the fewest law enforcment officers per capita in the country.
Sanders said it would be "really easy" for him to order his deputies to be more cautious and terminate pursuits to avoid blame for any incidents that may arise. He likened such a policy to avoiding confronting a school shooter to avoid potential escalation.
"We are more comfortable trying to save as many people as we can and failing than to never step foot in the arena for the sake of avoiding scrutiny," Sanders said.
Fact-checking Sanders' data
Sanders listed recent crime statistics in Washington state for added context, but he did not initially list sources for the data.
When reached by The Olympian on Thursday, Sanders said he referenced data from news articles, the Washington Traffic Safety Commission and the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. His numbers painted an mostly accurate picture, but the data he listed did not entirely align with the latter two sources.
Sanders said there were 539 fatal crashes in 2020, 607 in 2021, 701 in 2022, 810 in 2023. Data from the WTSC indicated aligned with those numbers up to 2023. For that year, the WTSC data shows there were 733 fatal crashes as of May 2024. A different data table for traffic fatalities (number of people killed) by year indicates there were 810 fatalities in 2023.
Sanders also listed auto thefts by year. He said there were 26,520 auto thefts in 2020, 31,032 in 2021, 46,939 in 2022 and 43,160 in 2023.
Data from the WASPC indicates there were actually more: 27,786 offenses reported in 2020, 35,385 in 2021, 47,448 in 2022 and 54,187 in 2023. Though the numbers did not align, the data still shows total yearly auto thefts increasing from 2020 to 2023.
Lastly, Sanders stated there were more auto thefts in Washington than Florida in 2022 despite Washington having a third of Florida's population.
Florida law enforcement agencies reported 21,388 motor vehicle thefts in 2022, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Crime Data Explorer. Meanwhile, Washington had 49,804 reported motor vehicle thefts.
However, there's a big caveat with this data: It relies on participation from law enforcement agencies.
About 99% of the Washington state population was covered by reporting law enforcement agencies in 2022. In Florida, about 71% of the population was covered throughout 2022, per the data.
With respect to the number of officers per capita, FBI data shows there are 1.34 officers per 1,000 people in Washington state in 2023. That rate is the lowest among the 50 states and lower than the national rate of 2.4 per 1,000 people.
Notably, the FBI advises against ranking locations and making comparisons to measure law enforcement effectiveness on their crime data explorer. Their website states crime is a "sociological phenomenon influenced by a variety of factors," and some data may not be comparable due to "differing levels of participation over time."
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