3.2.17
Suggested lead:
Members of the state House put in another marathon day of floor debate
and final votes on Thursday. Dan
Frizzell has more.
Wrap (:77 total):
FROM THE PODIUM: “Having received a constitutional majority, House
Bill 1844 is declared passed.” SFX: Gavel
State representatives heard those words quite a few times Thursday as they
raced toward a key deadline next week.
Veterans’ issues, mental health and public safety were just a few of the
issues on a docket comprising more than three dozen bills.
One of the first bills of the day dealt with felony eluding – the legal
name for what most people know as 'trying to outrun a cop.' To protect the
public and police alike, most law enforcement agencies rarely initiate chases
anymore when a driver decides to take off, opting instead to let them go for now
and arrest them when the dust settles.
But as Representative Mike Sells notes, it’s hard to convict a driver for
eluding when no one was actively chasing them.
SELLS: “If
you go to court and you try to get them on eluding, the courts quite often, and
juries, interpret it as ‘he wasn’t eluding, because it wasn’t a full-blown chase
or the chase was not initiated.’
This bill corrects that.” [:13]
Sells, a veteran Democrat from Everett, wrote the bill to
make clear that once a driver is aware that he’s being waved over to stop, hot
pursuit isn’t required – only a willful attempt to get away.
Statistically, that’s an attempt that is almost never successful because,
as Sells points out, it’s hard to outrun a radio. In Olympia, I’m Dan Frizzell.