Auburn Police have reported that four people were shot, a teen girl and three men, when a fight broke out at an illegal street race in Auburn early yesterday morning. Thankfully they all survived and are in stable condition in the hospital. These races have become more and more dangerous through the decades, and the possibility of violence at these events has been increasing.
The governor is poised to sign Senate Bill 5606, a new law that the legislature devised to crack down on these illegal street races. But the legislature’s failure on the pursuit law will make the street racing law virtually unenforceable. The new street racing law makes driving recklessly in a street race a more serious offense with higher penalties, and allows police to impound cars for this reckless behavior. This would be a deterrent, except that under the police pursuit law, a car being driven recklessly can’t be pursued by police. Common sense says it’s unlikely that someone engaging in a street race would willingly pull over and hand over their car keys to a police officer that is not pursuing them and is forbidden to do so. We battled street racing for most of my 28 years on Renton City Council after local young people were killed in some of these races. The drivers were very skilled at eluding police even before the police were told not to chase them. The legislature should fix the law to allow for pursuit of reckless drivers if they want this street racing law to actually mean something.
Renton Police have asked witnesses to contact 911 if they saw anything that can help the investigation of two related stabbings this afternoon in Renton, one at the Landing, and one on the 430 Block of Williams Ave. Here is their official request:
Sadly, a 40-year-old woman was found deceased in a travel lane on Maple Valley Highway in Renton last night. Police investigators would greatly benefit from any witnesses that may have seen her or anything unusual around 10:00-10:20 PM. Here is the official police request:
Crash scene on I-405 in Renton near NE 44th Street exit yesterday afternoon. A stolen car with no plates, NOT being pursued by police, lost control on the freeway. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt in what could easily have been a deadly accident. The driver had been ordered to pull over by Bellevue officers shortly before this accident, but the officers did not pursue because the car was driven recklessly. The crash caused a five-mile long backup in the afternoon commute. (WSP Photo)
The legislature has slightly improved their poorly-conceived 2021 police vehicle pursuit law with passage of Senate Bill 5352. I’m grateful to the state senators and representatives that pushed for these improvements, and have made it a little better. Many of these legislators tried to do more, but this was the best they could get, and I thank them. The improvements make it easier to catch dangerous suspects that have committed violent crimes and are seen fleeing in vehicles.
But the 2023 improvement do not reverse the deadly consequences of letting reckless and drunken drivers overrun our highways with impunity. The 2021 law made it illegal for police to pursue drivers who exhibit dangerous driving behavior, and the 2023 revisions did nothing to fix that. The data suggests that Washington highway death tolls will continue to march upward at 10-15% per year as a result, making a continued mockery of the state’s “Target Zero” driver safety program.
Target Zero was supposed to get us to zero deaths by 2030. Instead, deaths are rapidly increasing since the police pursuit law went into effect
Reckless drivers get too much of a pass. In fact, unless a driver is known to be a suspect in a serious violent crime, the law explicitly tells the officer NOT to pursue if ” the operator of the moving vehicle appears to be willfully resisting or ignoring the officer’s attempt to stop the vehicle by increasing vehicle speed, making evasive maneuvers, or operating the vehicle in a reckless manner that endangers the safety of the community or the officer.”
In other words, if you drive recklessly enough, you can’t be forced to pull over. And if you’re in a stolen car and you hide your face, your risk of ever getting caught is near zero…at least unless your reckless driving leads to a crash.
Despite what some legislators may tell you, DUI’s are also unenforceable against the most rebellious drivers even with the updates to the law. Unless a driver willingly pulls over for an infraction, the police can’t typically establish reasonable suspicion for a DUI— it takes a driver interview.
And under the bill, in order for police to pull over someone who is “a serious risk of harm,” they must also be wanted for one of the crimes listed in the bill– it’s not enough that their driving itself is a serious risk of harm. The legislature shows little concern for the rapidly increasing number of devastating car crashes that take hundreds of lives per year in our state, the biggest cause of death for children and young adults.
The legislature has effectively created a new class of drivers, exempt from all the rules. Most of us toil to earn money for a car, and pay for expensive licensing, insurance, tolls, and maintenance in order to drive. But for those that don’t mind breaking laws and driving dangerously, the legislature has created an alluring and widely-known loophole that allows drivers to avoid these costs and still not get pursued by police. If one steals a car, removes the license plate, and commits to always driving recklessly and endangering the public when they’re on the road, they are essentially exempted from being pursued by police. It has become so tempting, even local high-school students on TikTok are doing it, sometimes several cars in one night. This increasingly popular Washington State loophole comes with the added benefit to criminals of being able to commit property crimes and drive away with impunity. Most of us have seen these drivers on the roads and highways, often passing us or running stops signs, and typically bearing no license plates. I’ve personally had near-misses with at least two of them.
Even the perpetrators are hurt by this. One of the worst consequences of the police pursuit law is that by enabling/incentivising car theft and reckless driving, it entices more young people who love cars into a life of crime and perpetual danger. I went to high school with some car enthusiasts who loved to modify and occasionally race their vehicles. Fortunately, they knew they would be pursued by police if they raced on streets, so they found off-road, out-of-the-way locations to race, and kept their in-town driving legal. They also didn’t steal cars, as no one wanted to be busted for that. These classmates have enjoyed fulfilling lives pursuing their car hobbies– thanks in part to the sensible lawmakers back then that did not carelessly incentivise deadly and illegal activities.
The ribbons in the before and after photos are in the same place. For background on these photos see my previous blog entry here.
Like many in our state, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to reconcile policies I’ve always supported regarding environmental stewardship and clean air and water, with the new trend of enabling offenders of environmental and other crimes. Our most sensitive wetlands and ecosystems are increasingly polluted and ruined without consequences. With King County Transfer Stations now charging $181 per ton to dump garbage with a $30 minimum just to empty a waste basket, and seemingly no consequence for littering any more, it’s not just the struggling unhoused putting garbage and pollutants in our environment.
One can not advocate for anarchy and still claim to be protecting the environment. All the laws protecting air, water, soil, plants and wildlife are meaningless without adequate police staffing and tools to enforce them and meaningful accountability for violators.
And it’s incongruent for anyone to claim to be a “climate activist” while enabling home break-ins, car thefts, and vandalism. All of these crimes have enormous environmental consequences, adding significantly to carbon in the atmosphere, as essential property is replaced and new protective measures are taken by property owners.
In 2022 my catalytic converter was stolen off my van in my driveway, along with thousands of other catalytic converters stolen from Washington automobiles that year. State legislators had crafted a law, still in place, that ensures anyone stealing catalytic converters won’t be pursued by police if they drive away. Our state is now the worst for thefts of catalytic converters, leading to tons of extra mining of rare earth minerals and an unknown number of vehicles driving around without the proper pollution control equipment. We’re all breathing more unburned hydrocarbon, nitrous oxide, and carbon monoxide because of this legislation.
In 2021 the city of Seattle considered implementing a crime-of-need defense, that would have made it okay for people to steal from a neighbor if they needed money for rent, perhaps taking a contractor’s tools and pawning them for cash. Fortunately this law did not pass, but the flawed reasoning that brought it to the table is still held by many local lawmakers including some in Olympia. The obvious way for a compassionate society to help someone trying to cover their rent when they can’t afford it is to extend assistance in the form of a voucher. If someone can’t afford food, we should give them access to a food bank. Enabling them to steal from a neighbor diminishes their self-esteem, gets them about three cents on the dollar for everything stolen, and puts the theft victim also at risk of needing rental assistance. Furthermore on a large scale it is environmentally disastrous, as the replacement of essential tools and repair of property has enormous costs.
Washington has by far the highest rate of stolen cars in the US, with an overall number of thefts that only trails California and Texas because those states are many times our size. Renton is seeing up to five auto thefts per day. The theft of a single car puts 4.2 metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere, so Renton car thefts are currently contributing 21 METRIC TONS per day of carbon to the climate change balance sheet. Anyone who is okay with this, who enables this by promoting lax law enforcement, is NOT an environmental activist.
The average home break-in dumps about the same amount of carbon into the atmosphere as driving a car 3000 miles after you figure in the replacement of property, the repair work, and criminal justice implications. A European study published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology estimates the carbon footprint of this and other crimes in one of the few studies on this topic. While some of the carbon footprint is produced by the criminal justice system itself, most of the criminal justice carbon footprint impacts come from cases of homicide, assault, sex offenses, and robbery; these crimes must be punished meaningfully to prevent vigilante justice (more crimes) and mayhem in society.
Figure from “Addressing the Carbon-Crime Blind Spot: A Carbon Footprint Approach” by Helen Skudder et al
In summary, if one cares about the protecting the environment and preventing climate change, they should care about law enforcement– because you can’t accomplish one without the other.
Deputy Chief Jeffrey Hardin (right) provided a detailed update of gun violence in Renton to the Public Safety Committee. Commander Ryan Rutledge (left) looks on.
Deputy Chief Jeffrey Hardin provided a detailed update on gun violence in Renton to the Public Safety Committee on Monday, Feb 27. Committee members and the public listened in rapt attention to the sobering statistics, tragic crime details, and thorough response by Renton police. His report speaks for itself, driving home the importance of our professional and capable police department and the challenging times we are facing. Here is Deputy Chief Hardin’s report:
Public Safety Committee 2/27/23
Update on gun violence in the city.
In 2022 there were 42 Threats with a firearm (20% increase), 69 Armed Robberies (50% increase), and 14 Armed car jackings (70% increase).
There was also a 34% increase of shots fired from 2021. This includes, homicides, shots fired with a subject injured, shots fired with property damage, and illegal discharges.
In 2022, we had seven homicides all involving a firearm. Of those, three are in custody, one committed suicide at the time of crime, the fourth is close to being charged (waiting for lab results) and the fifth has been identified (waiting for witness confirmation for probable cause). Of the remaining homicides, one is still being actively investigated and the other has been moved to cold case status due to lack of evidence and cooperating witnesses and victims (shooting at musician’s hall).
Renton’s North Renton neighborhood, looking north. Photo credit Google Earth
A few weeks ago I asked if a few people impacted by crime in Renton would allow me to share their stories, to help illustrate the real human impact crime was having on our residents and our city, beyond the statistics. Earlier posts in this series were from Tonya, who told her story about her family moving from Renton after an immense loss; and Melyza, about how her life was turned upside down by an attempted car theft. I’m publishing these as a call to action by state and local lawmakers, and everyone else that might be able to do more to protect our residents and business owners from crime.
I’ve posted the third in this series today, submitted by a woman who asked to be called E.W. She lives in the North Renton neighborhood, between Boeing and downtown. She and her husband bought a home in this neighborhood when they moved to Renton.
This is her story (in italics):
This is in response to your blog about how crime is affecting people here in Renton. My husband and I have three children in the North Renton neighborhood. We have lived here almost five years. The neighborhood and people here are delightful.
But we have gotten so concerned for the safety of our children, especially when they play outside. We spent thousands of dollars constructing a long, tall fence. (We hated the separation this created between our yard and the many neighbors we enjoy greeting as they pass by on the sidewalk.). The fence wasn’t enough. There has been a steady drumbeat of gun violence. I am afraid of one of my kids being shot while playing outside. There is also frequent loud shouting, cursing and altercations by people that are suffering behavioral issues, suffering from addiction, or unhoused passing on foot on a regular basis.
We intended to stay in this house forever, but are now in the process of moving to east Renton highlands in pursuit of safety for our kids.
This is a decision made out of privilege – most of the families in our neighborhood can’t afford to leave to a more expensive neighborhood and deserve more safety right where they are.
Just 16 hours before publishing E.W.s story, there was gunfire in her neighborhood at N. 3rd St and Park Ave North as assailants in a car with no license plates passed a group of teenagers, and both parties apparently shot at each other. Three uninvolved motorists in two separate vehicles were injured by flying glass as bullets pierced their cars. The police are currently looking for the suspects. There have been increasingly frequent shootings in this area, combined with a record number of homicides.
Families with children like E.W.s are important to the future of our city. It’s critical that families are able to thrive in North Renton, one of our city’s oldest neighborhoods with our most distinctive and historic homes. This neighborhood also hosts our city’s Don Persson Senior Activity Center and Sartori elementary school, in addition to highly utilized parks and trails. I’m grateful for E.W. for sharing her experience. It represents a call to action to those policy makers in charge of protecting this neighborhood from crime before more families feel they need to move out. There are tens of thousands of Rentonites committed to making North Renton a safe and inviting neighborhood for all families. Any elected policy makers that don’t have this responsibility near the very top of their priority list should step down and let someone who cares take their place.
Renton’s 11th District Legislator Steve Bergquist (center, in blue) is co-sponsoring a bill to restore police pursuit authority. Last week he was given encouragement by six Renton Council Members and the Mayor who showed up at his office: from left Council Member Alberson, Mayor Pavone, Council Members Van, Perez, O’Halloran (not shown but participating, CMs Prince, and McIrvin). Renton Council Member Carmen Rivera was lobbying for the other side.
The City of Renton has a long, important partnership with the Association of Washington Cities (AWC), a respected professional organization that lobbies on behalf of all 281 cities and towns in our state. AWC just urgently informed cities that the Police Pursuit bill needs everyone’s help (bolding is theirs): “AWC is encouraged HB 1363 is continuing to move forward. Cities still need to reach out to legislators and ask them to support this bill because it still faces opposition and a difficult path to full passage”. Mayor Pavone and six council members are helping as requested.
Crime is currently one of the biggest concerns of many residents in Renton and our region. I’ve heard from countless Renton residents who are extremely worried about this issue, and sadly some of them have become so concerned they’ve either already moved or are making plans to move. While some elected officials are actively working the crime issue, others are still denying that crime is a significant problem. I’ve asked permission from readers to share a few of the stories I’ve heard, with the goal of ensuring a common understanding of the problem so that it may be worked seriously and productively. A reader named Tonya generously offered to share her poignant story as she and her family begin a new chapter of their lives in Eastern Washington.
