A majority of Washington voters support the statewide package of police reforms.

Restricting car chases prevents officers from pursuing and arresting criminals.

The new pursuit law creates a statewide standard the police must uphold before engaging in a dangerous high-speed car chase, which have killed countless innocent bystanders and police.

Restricting circumstances that warrant the risk of a high-speed pursuit makes everyone safer.

Restrictions on force, including putting people in chokeholds and strangleholds, will stop them from intervening in a crisis.

After the choking deaths of Eric Garner, George Floyd, and Manuel Ellis in Tacoma, people across the state and country have called for an end to this brutal tactic. Officers in Washington have not been trained consistently on this tactic and mistakes, resulting in potential death or paralysis, are far too common. The new law bans all neck restraints, removing this tactics from an officer’s toolbox. The goal of the new laws is to reduce excessive use of force by creating a duty of reasonable care and prioritizing de-escalation and less lethal alternatives.

Restrictions on being able to use physical force will stop them from intervening in a crisis or pursuing suspected criminals.

Nothing in the law prevents officers from showing up to crisis calls and intervening. 1310 emphasizes de-escalation over confrontation and limits the use of deadly force to when necessary to protect someone’s life. Police who object to de-escalation as a priority are asserting that the only tool that they have is to physically injure or kill people in crisis. Physically threatening or harming someone should not be the police's default strategy.

They need military equipment, in addition to standard police weaponry, to keep communities safe.

Military-grade weapons do not keep communities safe. Tanks, sound cannons, grenades and machine guns are intended for use by soldiers at war, not police sworn to serve and protect local communities. With the passage of 1054, the police can no longer purchase or use military style equipment.

The uniform requirements in HB 1054 are too restrictive.

Until now, officers in Washington weren’t required to always be easily identifiable as law enforcement. During last summer’s protests, some police hid their names on uniforms to avoid identification. This puts both the public and the police at risk. People should be able to identify, and name, officers working and responding to situations in their communities.

Gases and chemical irritants are necessary tools that officers should be able to use and are mostly used in cases where there is a barricaded subject.

Officers are now limited in their use of tear gas to only situations where there is a barricaded subject, hostage, or riot where there is a risk of harm, and alternatives to tear gas have been exhausted. Until now, tear gas has been used to disperse protesters and control critics of law enforcement. Tear gassing those who are exercising their 1st amendment right illustrate the very reason this practice must end.

Officers intervening in a mental health crisis is now prohibited under the new law because that action could be classified as a “use of force.”

The new law does not prohibit police from doing their duty in life threatening situations or using appropriate and necessary force when applicable. Washington Police are willing to put the public at risk to avoid accountability.