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Police say new laws prevented officers from pursuing suspect that rammed patrol vehicles


Police red and blue lights
Police red and blue lights
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Puyallup Police said they could not legally pursue a suspect vehicle even though it rammed their cars right in front of their eyes.

They said the new police reform laws prevent it.

Two patrol units were damaged as they tried to question the car prowl suspect in his car. Police said the suspect drove off in a hurry ramming their cars along the way. The officers were not hurt because they were not in their cars at the time, which they say is key to what they did.

“The officers were not in the vehicles when the vehicles were rammed, therefor the crime did not rise to the level that would authorize us to pursue that vehicle under the new legislation,” said Capt. Jason Visnaw, Puyallup PD. He was asked, “Does that sound crazy to you?” Visnaw, “It’s the world we live in now. The legislators wrote and enacted this legislation. This is what we are bound by. It’s what we will do.”

State Sen. Jamie Pedersen (D-Seattle, 43rd Dist) was asked, “Are they correct?” Pedersen helped pass the legislation and said, “That is correct. We specifically prohibited departments from engaging in hot pursuits unless there had been a violent crime or a sex crime and they had probable cause to believe that the suspect was the person who committed that crime.”

Another of the legislation authors Rep. Jesse Johnson (D-Federal Way, 30th Dist) said, “We put these restrictions on vehicular pursuits in the law because pursuits are inherently dangerous to the officers, the suspect, and the public at large.”

Police arrested a woman who they believe was a passenger in the suspect car, a silver Ford Edge. Police saod she was spotted several blocks away car prowling at an assisted living center.

Police reform advocates have long been saying that police underreacting in certain situations is an overreaction to the new laws.

“No, we’re not overreacting to the new legislation,” said Visnaw. “I think anyone who would think us not pursuing this vehicle because we want to prove a point about the new legislation and that we don’t want to pursue this vehicle that just rammed two of our cars simply for that reason, I think that’s silly.”

While the police pursuit limit portion of the bills is likely to stand, Sen. Pedersen said corrections are coming in the next legislative session in January. “There are pieces of the use of force bill and the police tactics bill that we’re going to be discussing and I suspect we will change by the end of the 2022 session.”

Such as enabling police to help involuntarily commit people who pose a danger to themselves or others and allowing for ‘less than lethal’ beanbag shotguns

“I would like to see the police be able to do their job,” said Fran Jennings whose Puyallup equipment store has been burglarized several times including Sunday when off-duty federal way police officer Donovan Heavener interrupted the crime and was shot and wounded. “They’re willing to do their job. I think they just have too many restrictions. There are too few rights for good guys and too many rights for the bad guys.”

Detectives were back out at the scene looking for evidence. They found the silver truck, but not the black one yet as the search for the suspects continues.

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