OLYMPIA, Wash. – Governor Jay Inslee signed two bills on Friday, March 4th, to fix parts of a sweeping package of police reform measures passed in 2021.
The first bill clarifies that officers may use force to help detain or transport people in behavioral health crisis.
Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo says that law has kept officers from helping people who have really needed it.
“If they don’t want to go with us or they want to get out of the back of the car on the way to the facility we’re taking them to for evaluation and treatment,” said Elfo. “We can’t detain them and we can’t use reasonable and necessary force to take them into custody.”
The other policing bill Inslee signed addresses an oversight that seemed to inadvertently prohibit police departments from obtaining certain less lethal military weapons like beanbag shotguns.