New Traffic Stop Bill Gets Hearing In Olympia

OLYMPIA, WA — A House committee on Monday considered the "Traffic Safety for All Act," a measure seeking to prioritize police resources away from low-risk traffic stops to focus more on safety-related infractions like impaired, speeding, or reckless drivers.

State Rep. Chipalo Street (D-Seattle) sponsored the legislation, which is designed to limit "forced interactions with police that can escalate into tragic uses of force," while also establishing a system to provide low-income drivers with funds for vehicle repairs to improve safety and avoid fines.

"Washington is experiencing a record high number of traffic deaths and yet too much of our policing is focused on non-moving violations that have no impact on road safety," Street said. "Stops for non-moving violations disproportionately impact low-income communities, do little to improve public safety, and harm community-police relations. Let’s focus our resources on getting dangerous drivers off the road and not creating situations that can spiral out of control over a broken taillight."

Street's office cited an analysis of "high discretion searches" by Washington State Patrol that found Black, Hispanic and Pacific Islander drivers were nearly twice as likely to be searched than white drivers, despite being less likely to have contraband on them. The same study found Native American drivers were five times as likely to be searched.

The bill would require safety-related stops to keep to the issue the driver was pulled over for, unless there is a "reasonable suspicion" of a more serious crime.

Among the bill's supporters is Sophia Joseph, whose son Giovonn McDade was killed by Kent Police after fleeing a traffic stop for a minor violation in 2017.

"My son was killed over expired tabs," Joseph said in a statement Monday. "We have to ask ourselves, was it worth it? Is that a good use of police time? Getting stopped for something like that makes us question the officer's motives, it makes us feel targeted. Did that traffic stop make anyone safer?"

The financial assistance portion of the bill would establish a grant pool for counties, cities, tribes and non-profit groups to offer repair vouchers, workshops, fee waivers and other benefits to qualifying drivers. It also requires better data collection on traffic stops to help lawmakers track the effectiveness of the legislation.

If approved, Washington would join a growing number of states and cities in making similar adjustments to traffic stops in recent years. The bill was scheduled for a hearing in the House Community Safety, Justice, & Reentry Committee on Monday afternoon.