Local law enforcement hopes for expanded vehicle pursuits

OLYMPIA – The passage of Senate Bill 5352, which reinstates some circumstances in which law enforcement can pursue a vehicle, has many law enforcement agencies saying the bill is a start but is not enough.

“This definitely puts things in a step in the right direction for sure,” said Grant County Sheriff Joe Kriete. “It really does. And I think we knew as far as law enforcement executives, we were not going to turn the page all at one time. We knew it was going to be bits and pieces every year – that a year goes by with data that's collected to show that in 2021 a really big mistake was made.”

“A substantial mistake was made,” Kriete added.

Some local law enforcement leaders say they would like the state legislature to reinstate many of the circumstances that allowed them to engage in vehicular pursuits. In particular, Soap Lake Police Chief Ryan Cox said there is a simple thing the legislature can add to the list of approved reasons for a vehicular pursuit.

“In my opinion, moving violations,” said Soap Lake Police Chief Ryan Cox.

Cox said pulling people over for moving violations has allowed officers to solve crimes and get criminals off the street. He cited the example of Oklahoma City Bomber Timothy McVeigh, who was caught when he was pulled over for a missing license plate, and serial killer Ted Bundy, who was caught because he was pulled over for driving without his headlights on his car and failing to yield to two stop signs.

Kriete said he would prioritize the ability to pursue for property crimes because, as sheriff, he is worried that people will start to take the issues into their own hands and possibly put their own lives in danger because police cannot pursue suspects of thefts or burglaries.

“That's the last thing I want to have happen is to have people put their own lives in harm's way when that's our job to do,” Kriete said. “That's what we signed up to do and that's what we're trained to do.”

He said that areas like Grant County that farms are especially vulnerable to thefts that can delay or disrupt essential production.

“We forget that when pumps are taken, span wire from circles are taken, any type of valves are taken – anytime it disrupts the ability for our farmers to produce and grow goods that are being distributed out to the rest of not just our community but the rest of the country – that has a substantial problem with within the economy of our country, and in our state,” Kriete said.

Kriete said he thinks the law will continue to be reworked as more statistics come out about the impact rolling back pursuits has had on communities.

“I don't think we're there yet. I really don't but it does give me hope that we're getting there,” Kriete said. “I think next year we may even see more changes. Once more time goes by and we see that it's still not fixed because law enforcement has policies that govern pursuits that we have and we've been terminating pursuits for years.”

Moses Lake Police Chief Kevin Fuhr, however, said prior to the 2021 legislation that limited law enforcement pursuits, MLPD already had a policy not to pursue moving violations.

“(MLPD) already had pretty strict pursuit policies before all of these changes,” Fuhr said. “We were already doing a pretty good job of making sure that we weren't pursuing for the wrong reasons and that we had oversight. Our policy requires supervisor intervention. We already had all that in our policy before all of this.”

Fuhr agreed with Kriete on bringing pursuers back for property crime but was a little more specific on what type.

“What I would say is felony property crime, which would be stolen vehicles, retail theft that involves a burglary and or catalytic converter thefts, which again becomes a felony with the amount of damage that they do,” he said.

Andrew Warren, a Moses Lake resident, had his car stolen only a couple months ago, and had the pursuit laws not been in place, he feels it would have turned out differently.

His truck was stolen from the Moses Lake Vision Center. Warren happened to spot the truck at the intersection of Broadway and Stratford and realized the truck was not being driven by his wife, who had taken the vehicle that day. He quickly took action and followed the truck while on the phone with dispatch until law enforcement could arrive. By the time law enforcement was able to catch up, the suspect and Warren were on I-90 heading toward Ritzville and coming upon the Adams County line at high rates of speed. Warren said at that point, he disengaged his pursuit and let the police units do their job. Unfortunately, because of jurisdiction and the pursuit law, several law enforcement agencies who spotted the suspect over the next few hours and counties had to terminate the pursuit. The truck was recovered about 6-8 hours later in Idaho out of gas.

“It would have been nice if (law enforcement) would have just kept going because they could have probably caught him a little bit sooner than going all the way to Idaho,” Warren said.

Warren said because of the suspect’s erratic driving and the length of his flight, the damage done to the truck was more than it was worth and the insurance company considered the vehicle totaled.

It was an inconvenience not only having to deal with his truck being stolen but it being declared totaled, Warren said.

“Yeah, it definitely was (inconvenient),” he said. “That was my work truck.”

Rebecca Pettingill may be reached at rpettingill@columbiabasinherald.com.