Legislative District 22

This is a really complex question. We need to make policing safe for our community. That means that we need to create a law enforcement system that better matches the folks dispatched to the needs of the call.

For example, someone in a mental health crisis; cities with specialized mental health responders are showing that someone trained for crisis intervention is far better suited to help folks in these kinds of situations. This makes our system more effective and safer for everyone. In order to do this, we need to reimagine how we understand, staff, and fund public safety.

With any community, I go to their spaces and listen first always, work alongside them to find solutions to issues that are pressing, in this case those most impacted by public safety issues, and amplify the work they do (nothing makes me more annoyed than taking credit for work that community does), and continue to keep the lines of communication open. Ultimately, as a policymaker, I am accountable to the people and the organizations that are doing the work and consistent communication is the first priority.

I believe that the issues presented provide a ample assessment of measures and reforms, but that we should continue to listen to community voices, especially those of BIPOC folks as we continue to refine our public safety landscape.

In District 22, my idea of public safety is it’s safe enough when my wife feels safe walking in downtown Olympia at night by herself. She does not at this time. If anyone were counting the number of families with young children or older adults walking in our downtowns and noticed the numbers increasing from month to month from June, 2022, through June, 2023, then that would be a good measurement that our citizens feel safer than they have felt lately.

One of my first acts would be to pole my fellow legislators to see which of them are spending time in our downtown areas after dark. And, my follow up questions would include “why not” if any told me that they were not spending time in our downtown areas after dark. I was a lunch this week and Sheriff Snaza shared with us that our sheriff’s department and city police departments are not sharing information about stops by each other. That means that a person stopped for committing a crime in Tumwater or Yelm who gets stopped for a similar crime in Olympia is stopped without the officer knowing that he/she may be stopping a multi-stop suspect. That seems very unsafe to me. It’s unsafe to the officer and unsafe to the public.

Our police are very well screened before they are hired and they are well trained before and after they are hired. It’s up to the police agency leaders to make sure their officers don’t abuse their authority or commit acts of a bias nature. Examples of police misbehavior or even police committing crimes against a suspect are serious indicators that leaders are not doing their jobs. Local government, e.g., City Councils or County Commissioners, need to hold their police agency leaders accountable first.

We must work to defend the bold change in the policies Washington state has adopted to reduce police shootings and create a system where all people feel safe. I will continue to work to demilitarize police, implement effective and comprehensive implicit bias training, ensure civilian oversight, create a database for centralized collection and reporting of police shootings and killings, demand actual accountability for police brutality and murder, and fully support and work on the 2023 policy agenda described in the questions above.

Tangible ways to measure progress toward this goal is through the data collection I support above.

We cannot have true justice in our country until we correct and transform our broken systems of policing and criminal justice. I will listen first to the community members who have been most affected by these policies and systems for decades and who have been doing the work to demand reform on these issues and more. Together, we can act and inspire mass movement for change, and build a justice system that matches our ideals and embodies our values.

I would link to my full statement on criminal justice on my website.

There is much work to be done reforming our criminal justice system and addressing the deep racial and socioeconomic inequalities that influence how it functions – and the racist and classist outcomes it can create. We need to greatly reduce incarceration, especially for nonviolent, drug offenses; federally legalize marijuana, expunge past convictions, and make sure affected communities play a significant role in the new industry; eliminate the death penalty, and work with the communities and stakeholders most affected to ensure a better system.

I also know the level of police violence in this country is wrong, and disproportionately affects men of color at a rate that is wholly unacceptable. I not only voted for I‐940 in the legislature (and on the ballot), I dropped the first bill of the session on this topic in 2016 ‐ HB1000. This initiative will lead to significant reform in how we train our police and how they are held accountable in the event of police violence.

The final bill I helped pass in the legislature included reforms approved by both police and by activists – getting consensus on this issue is not impossible, it just takes real work. If I am elected to return to the legislature, I am confident I can work with activists, criminal justice reform experts, and local government to develop reform that actually addresses this issue and creates safer communities.