Public Safety

We passed a number of bills this year to improve public safety in numerous ways — and we did it in a year of intense budget constraints.

The bills we passed make life safer for the public at large, protect troubled Washingtonians from harming themselves or others, help offenders achieve rehabilitation and lead productive lives, and improve the safety of employees who run our corrections facilities.

These bills build on our core commitments to public safety, efficiency in government, and fair treatment for all Washingtonians. People in every community in our state are safer because of these changes, and their tax dollars are being spent more efficiently and effectively.

Sex crimes

Much of our legislation protects victims before and after sex crimes.

To help victims, we authorized mental health counseling for victims of sex crimes when their offenders are on trial for commitment as predators. (HB 1221)

We protect renters by allowing a tenant or household member victimized by sexual assault, stalking or unlawful harassment by a landlord to change and add locks to the dwelling or to terminate a rental agreement with no further obligation (ESHB 1856); and increased the number of years someone who commits serious sex offenses against children can be charged with the crime — current law stops the charges when the child reaches age 21; the bill extends the age to 28. (SB 5832)

To shield victims of domestic violence from further abuse, we empower courts to give victims exclusive custody of pets and grant protection orders restricting the abusers’ proximity to the pets. (HB 1108) And to deter future crimes by known offenders, we now require sex and kidnapping offenders, upon request of law enforcement, to provide e-mail address information or any internet name or identity information, including instant message, chat, or social networking names or identities of any personal web site created or operated by the offender. (HB 2035)

To head off sex crimes and aggression by troubled youths in home settings, we increased treatment of sexually aggressive youth regardless of whether the child and family are subject to dependency proceedings. (HB 1419)

Involuntary commitment

We enacted several measures to protect the public from people who require commitment: first and foremost by making it easier to keep people who have been involuntarily committed from possessing firearms. (HB 1498) Second, we changed the provisions to commit someone as a sexually violent predator to allow additional evidence to be considered by the court; someone found not to be a sexually violent predator maybe held for one day for an involuntary treatment evaluation. (SB 5718) Third, we expanded law enforcement agencies’ access to relevant records when determining whether someone should be civilly committed. (SSB 5718) Last, we eased the requirements to renew an involuntary commitment to a community facility for those who do not accept or comply with treatment, or who need outpatient treatment to prevent a relapse. (ESHB 1349)

Efficiency and economy

It’s always a good time to improve the way we run our corrections facilities, but with revenues in such short supply the need is only greater. We responded in several key areas.

We strengthened security at sex predator facilities by prohibiting the disclosure of emergency and security plans. (HB 1030) To focus our limited public safety resources on criminals most likely to reoffend, we removed low- and moderate-risk offenders — other than those with serious violent offenses — from supervision, and retained supervision of misdemeanor offenders with DV supervision. The level of supervision for each category is based on research that demonstrates the nature of supervision that is effective for offenders based on their criminal histories. (SB 5288, SB 6162)

To encourage treatment of the most violent offenders, we allowed courts to give defendants credit for time served in a county-supervised treatment option for chemical dependency. (HB 1361) We improved the likelihood of successful prosecution by imposing statutes of limitation of no more than six years after the commission or discovery — whichever occurs later — for the crimes of money laundering and identity theft. (SSB 5380)

We updated the 30-year-old statutes for minor crimes so that people who commit misdemeanors are not punished as felons. The punishment will fit the crime and we will save millions of dollars in unnecessary prosecutions and prison costs. (SB 6167)

Protecting the vulnerable

No one relies on society for protection more than its especially vulnerable members. To deter the exploitation of vulnerable adults, we prohibit people from inheriting property or receiving any benefit from an adult they financially exploited. (SHB 1103) To reduce the potential death of unwanted newborns, we expand the locations where a parent can transfer a newborn and not face prosecution. (SSB 5318) We expanded the application of hate crimes to deter malicious harassment to transgendered people by expanding the definition of victims to include those having or being perceived as having a gender identity different from that associated with the sex assigned at birth. (SB 5952)

We help break a vicious cycle for juveniles who fall into prostitution by allowing controlled diversion to a service-oriented program instead of prosecution. (SHB 1505)