For the first time in a long time — a very long time — the Wash­ing­ton State House and State Sen­ate have adopt­ed into law an ini­tia­tive sub­mit­ted by the peo­ple to the Leg­is­la­ture under the process out­lined in Arti­cle II of the State Con­sti­tu­tion, rather than tak­ing no action on the mea­sure and let­ting it go to the voters.

By a vote of fifty-five to forty-three, De-Esca­late Wash­ing­ton’s I‑940 (con­cern­ing law enforce­ment) was adopt­ed in the House. Not long after, it was adopt­ed in the Sen­ate on a par­ty-line vote of twen­ty-five to twenty-four.

In advance of the vote on I‑940, the Leg­is­la­ture passed a com­pro­mise bill nego­ti­at­ed by law­mak­ers, De-Esca­late Wash­ing­ton, and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the state’s law enforce­ment com­mu­ni­ty that will super­sede I‑940. That bill, ESHB 3003, passed the House and Sen­ate ear­li­er today and was signed into law by Gov­er­nor Inslee a few min­utes before the Leg­is­la­ture took up I‑940.

Here’s what this all means:

• Wash­ing­to­ni­ans may not be vot­ing on Ini­tia­tive 940 this November.
• The changes to state law sought by the De-Esca­late Wash­ing­ton coali­tion (which includ­ed NPI) will take effect many months soon­er than if the ini­tia­tive had gone to the bal­lot and been approved by voters.
• Pros­e­cu­tors will soon no longer have to prove that a police offi­cer act­ed “with­out mal­ice” to bring a case for improp­er, unjust use of dead­ly force.

Research by NPI last year found 69% of vot­ers sur­veyed were in sup­port of Ini­tia­tive 940. More recent­ly, a poll con­duct­ed on behalf of the De-Esca­late Wash­ing­ton coali­tion found 68% of respon­dents in sup­port of I‑940.

I pre­sent­ed our find­ings to the House and Sen­ate’s joint hear­ing on I‑940 last month, chaired by my own State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Roger Goodman.

The roll calls by the Sen­ate on approval of both I‑940 and ESHB 3003 were iden­ti­cal and along par­ty lines. The Sen­ate roll call vote for I‑940 is below.

Ini­tia­tive 940
Law enforcement
Sen­ate vote on 3rd Read­ing & Final Passage
3/8/2018

Yeas: 25; Nays: 24

Vot­ing Yea: Sen­a­tors Bil­lig, Car­lyle, Chase, Cleve­land, Con­way, Darneille, Dhin­gra, Frockt, Hasegawa, Hobbs, Hunt, Keis­er, Kud­er­er, Liias, McCoy, Mul­let, Nel­son, Palum­bo, Ped­er­sen, Ranker, Rolfes, Sal­daña, Takko, Van De Wege, Wellman

Vot­ing Nay: Sen­a­tors Angel, Bai­ley, Baum­gart­ner, Beck­er, Braun, Brown, Erick­sen, Fain, For­tu­na­to, Hawkins, Hon­ey­ford, King, Milos­cia, O’Ban, Pad­den, Rivers, Schoesler, Shel­don, Short, Wag­oner, Walsh, War­nick, Wil­son, Zeiger

The roll call by the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives on I‑940 was as follows:

Ini­tia­tive 940
Law enforcement
House vote on Final Passage
3/8/2018

Yeas: 55; Nays: 43

Vot­ing Yea: Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Apple­ton, Bergquist, Chap­man, Clib­born, Cody, Doglio, Dolan, Fey, Fitzgib­bon, Frame, Good­man, Gregerson, Grif­fey, Haler, Hansen, Hayes, Hud­gins, Jink­ins, Kagi, Kil­duff, Kir­by, Klip­pert, Klo­ba, Lovick, Lyt­ton, Macri, McBride, Mor­ris, Nealey, Orms­by, Ortiz-Self, Orwall, Pel­lic­ciot­ti, Peter­son, Pet­ti­grew, Pol­let, Reeves, Ric­cel­li, Robin­son, Ryu, San­tos, Sawyer, Sells, Senn, Slat­ter, Smith, Springer, Stan­ford, Stonier, Sul­li­van, Tar­leton, Tharinger, Valdez, Wylie, Mr. Speaker

Vot­ing Nay: Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Barkis, Blake, Buys, Caldier, Chan­dler, Con­dot­ta, DeBolt, Dent, Dye, Eslick, Graves, Har­grove, Harmsworth, Har­ris, Holy, Irwin, Jenkin, John­son, Kraft, Kretz, Kris­tiansen, MacEwen, Man­weller, May­cum­ber, McCabe, McCaslin, McDon­ald, Muri, Orcutt, Pike, Rodne, Schmick, Shea, Stam­baugh, Steele, Stokes­bary, Tay­lor, Van Wer­ven, Vick, Volz, Walsh, Wilcox, Young

The vote in the House was not along par­ty lines.

Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bri­an Blake vot­ed nay, while Repub­li­cans Brad Klip­pert, Ter­ry Nealey, Lar­ry Haler, Dan Grif­fey, Dave Hayes, and Nor­ma Smith joined the remain­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic mem­bers of the House in sup­port of the initiative.

Yes­ter­day, the House passed ESHB 3003 (the com­pro­mise suc­ces­sor bill) with over­whelm­ing bipar­ti­san majori­ties. The roll call on the bill was as follows.

ESHB 3003
Law enforce­ment
Final Passage
3/7/2018

Yeas: 73 Nays: 25

Vot­ing Yea: Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Apple­ton, Bergquist, Blake, Chap­man, Clib­born, Cody, Dent, Doglio, Dolan, Dye, Eslick, Fey, Fitzgib­bon, Frame, Good­man, Gregerson, Grif­fey, Haler, Hansen, Harmsworth, Har­ris, Hayes, Holy, Hud­gins, Jenkin, Jink­ins, John­son, Kagi, Kil­duff, Kir­by, Klip­pert, Klo­ba, Kraft, Kris­tiansen, Lovick, Lyt­ton, MacEwen, Macri, Man­weller, McBride, McDon­ald, Mor­ris, Nealey, Orms­by, Ortiz-Self, Orwall, Pel­lic­ciot­ti, Peter­son, Pet­ti­grew, Pol­let, Reeves, Ric­cel­li, Robin­son, Ryu, San­tos, Sawyer, Schmick, Sells, Senn, Slat­ter, Smith, Springer, Stan­ford, Stonier, Sul­li­van, Tar­leton, Tharinger, Valdez, Van Wer­ven, Vick, Volz, Wylie, Chopp

Vot­ing Nay: Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Barkis, Buys, Caldier, Chan­dler, Con­dot­ta, DeBolt, Graves, Har­grove, Irwin, Kretz, May­cum­ber, McCabe, McCaslin, Muri, Orcutt, Pike, Rodne, Shea, Stam­baugh, Steele, Stokes­bary, Tay­lor, Walsh, Wilcox, Young

“Today, in a his­toric move, the Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture took our pol­i­cy — Ini­tia­tive 940 and passed it into law!” said SEIU’s Chris Lamp­kin in a mes­sage addressed to coali­tion mem­bers. “It would not have been pos­si­ble with­out you — fam­i­ly, vol­un­teers, activists, trib­al mem­bers and com­mu­ni­ty sup­port­ers to get this law passed six months ear­li­er than if we passed it at the ballot.”

“We gath­ered over 360,000 sig­na­tures for Ini­tia­tive 940 to be con­sid­ered by the Leg­is­la­ture, raised over $1.3 mil­lion dol­lars and told the sto­ries of our fam­i­lies and friends who have lost loved ones. We demand­ed that our voic­es be heard!”

“Our cam­paign has been always about “build­ing bridges between com­mu­ni­ty and police.” We were hope­ful that, because of the pow­er of our move­ment, leg­is­la­tors and law enforce­ment offi­cers would work with us in order to pass I‑940 soon­er rather than lat­er — and they did!”

“The De-Esca­late Wash­ing­ton team worked togeth­er with leg­is­la­tors and law enforce­ment to pass a bill House Bill 3003 that strength­ens and clar­i­fies some of the lan­guage I‑940 and upholds the prin­ci­ples and val­ues of sav­ing lives and mak­ing every­one in our com­mu­ni­ty safer.”

The coali­tion notes that I‑940’s suc­ces­sor ESHB 3003 will do the following:

• Elim­i­nates the de-fac­to immu­ni­ty for when an offi­cer unjust­ly uses dead­ly force and puts in place a more clear and con­cise def­i­n­i­tion of good faith as an objec­tive standard.
• Puts in place mea­sures so that law enforce­ment agen­cies will be account­able if they fail to pro­vide train­ing to officers.
• Pro­vides clar­i­fi­ca­tion that first aid to those injured due to police action should have access to first aid at the ear­li­est safe opportunity.
• Shines a light that the de-esca­la­tion tac­tics and less lethal alter­na­tives are a part of deci­sion-mak­ing when con­sid­er­ing to use dead­ly force .
• Clar­i­fies the time­line for noti­fi­ca­tion of Tribes if a Trib­al mem­ber is killed to ensure enough time for impor­tant cul­tur­al cer­e­monies and rituals.
• Ensures that com­mu­ni­ty stake­hold­ers will be at the table to help craft the new train­ing and account­abil­i­ty measures.

“Your sto­ries and hard work helped us qual­i­fy I‑940 and showed the pow­er of our move­ment —  that when we stand unit­ed, fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties are a force to be reck­oned with,” Lamp­kin added. “Con­grat­u­la­tions to all of us on this his­toric win for every­one in our communities!”

“Tonight’s actions regard­ing I‑940 are incred­i­bly mean­ing­ful exam­ples of what hap­pens when peo­ple choose to open their mind, to lis­ten and to com­pro­mise,” said Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee in a state­ment. “De-Esca­late Wash­ing­ton over­came the odds and brought this ini­tia­tive to the Leg­is­la­ture, and I want to thank them for bring­ing a voice that many felt had gone unheard for too long.”

“Dur­ing this leg­isla­tive ses­sion, De-Esca­late Wash­ing­ton, many in the law enforce­ment com­mu­ni­ty, and a bipar­ti­san group of leg­is­la­tors came togeth­er to make tremen­dous progress on an issue that has divid­ed so many com­mu­ni­ties across our coun­try. I met with many from these groups ear­li­er tonight and thanked them for com­ing togeth­er and work­ing hard to find­ing true compromise.”

“Tonight’s pas­sage avoids politi­ciza­tion of an emo­tion­al issue, and I hope will bring mean­ing­ful change, progress and heal­ing. My belief is, and I heard from many tonight, that this should be the begin­ning of ongo­ing mean­ing­ful dia­logue to keep this con­ver­sa­tion mov­ing for­ward toward a safer Wash­ing­ton for all.”

“Thank you again to Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Good­man, Hayes, Sen­a­tors Frockt, Ped­er­sen, and all those involved in tonight’s passage.”

Four fam­i­lies who have lost loved ones said in a news release that the Leg­is­la­ture’s action will help dis­pel divi­sions between Wash­ing­ton’s peo­ple and law enforce­ment. Here are their state­ments on tonight’s votes.

Puyallup Trib­al mem­ber Lisa Earl lost her daugh­ter Jacque­line Saly­ers in Jan­u­ary 2016. Lisa and the Puyallup Tribe have worked tire­less­ly on this issue. “I want to thank the leg­is­la­tors for pass­ing this now and espe­cial­ly want to thank the law enforce­ment com­mu­ni­ty for com­ing for­ward to work with us. This is such an impor­tant step towards build­ing bridges between com­mu­ni­ties and the police.”

The fam­i­ly of Leonard Thomas has been work­ing close­ly with the De-Esca­late Wash­ing­ton cam­paign since last sum­mer.  Leonard was unarmed when he was shot by police in 2013.

“There are not enough words to describe how grate­ful we are.  We believe this will save lives. Mak­ing the law effec­tive in June instead of Decem­ber will make a dif­fer­ence for everyone.”

Mar­i­lyn Covar­ru­bias has been a fierce advo­cate for the pas­sage of I‑940. Mar­i­lyn’s son Daniel was killed by Lake­wood police in April 2015. “This issue is so impor­tant for the fam­i­lies who have been per­son­al­ly impact­ed by police vio­lence. Today is an his­toric day and will start the heal­ing process for fam­i­lies, for com­mu­ni­ties, and for law enforcement.”

Andre Tay­lor has been work­ing to address issues relat­ed to police prac­tices and police use of force since his broth­er Che Tay­lor was killed by Seat­tle police in Feb­ru­ary 2016.

“My fam­i­ly knows this won’t bring my broth­er back.  What it will do is make the future safer for our community.”

NPI con­grat­u­lates the Leg­is­la­ture and every­one involved in mak­ing tonight’s votes hap­pen. This is a tri­umph. It’s a demon­stra­tion of the incred­i­ble good that can be wrought from a con­ver­gence of the ini­tia­tive process and the leg­isla­tive process.

We know there are some, par­tic­u­lar­ly on the Repub­li­can side of the aisle, who believe that the adop­tion of ESHB 3003 amounts to an end-run around the Con­sti­tu­tion. Some of the peo­ple mak­ing this argu­ment have pre­vi­ous­ly sup­port­ed, — with gus­to — Tim Eyman ini­tia­tives that were bla­tant­ly uncon­sti­tu­tion­al and lat­er ruled to be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, so we find their objec­tions very curi­ous indeed.

We would point out to those indi­vid­u­als that I‑940 was in fact adopt­ed by the Leg­is­la­ture with­out amend­ment as the Con­sti­tu­tion requires, and that ESHB 3003 is a sep­a­rate piece of leg­is­la­tion that was vot­ed on independently.

Those who believe the Leg­is­la­ture act­ed uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly always have the free­dom to file a law­suit and bring the mat­ter before our courts for inter­pre­ta­tion. But giv­en that ESHB 3003 is com­pro­mise leg­is­la­tion intend­ed to avert the need for expen­sive pro and con cam­paigns this Novem­ber across our state on a sen­si­tive issue, leav­ing well enough alone would be in every­one’s best interest.