Columbia County Sheriff's Office hosts Town Hall

DAYTON—New policing laws and how they affect local law enforcement was the topic at a town hall presentation by Columbia County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday and Wednesday nights last week. The discussion offered an in-person and an online option for all attendees., and the same information was shared both nights.

Columbia County Sheriff Joe Helm and County Prosecutor Dale Slack led the discussion both nights to explain the recent legislation HB 1310 and HB 1054. The bills were passed to create a statewide standard for the use of force by law enforcement in Washington state. Some agencies, including Columbia County, have been left unsure of how to respond to certain calls, and frustrated with restrictions on how they are able to respond to others.

At the beginning of the meeting, Slack clarified that the legal opinions shared were his, and his alone. Both Helm and Slack expressed some disagreement with the new laws but made it clear that the sheriff’s and prosecutor’s offices would follow and enforce the new laws.

Under the new legislation, the Tactics and Equipment section has barred law enforcement officers from using neck restraints and chokeholds under any circumstances, even as an alternative to lethal force, Slack shared at the Wednesday night Town Hall.

Officers may not use tear gas outside of corrections facilities to quell a riot without getting permission from the highest elected official in the jurisdiction: For cities, that official is the mayor. For counties, the highest elected official is the chairman of the county commissioners, or the county executive, if applicable.

“We don’t have any tear gas, we have no plans to get any tear gas,” Slack said. “In fact, tear gas is actually illegal internationally to use against enemy combatants. I don’t think anyone here wants to use tear gas against our own citizens.”

Slack added that he wished that tear gas had been outlawed all together. He said the county and the sheriff’s offices have no issue with this provision, instead, the issue lies within the checks and balances laid out within the state’s constitution.

“The problem with that is the Washington State Constitution has a system of checks and balances, and it enumerates what the county officers are, what their powers are, and how they can perform checks on one another,” Slack said. “There is no provision in the Washington State Constitution that makes any kind of a super county official that can tell the sheriff how to do their job.”

In Slack’s opinion, this part of the law violates the system of checks and balances laid out by the state constitution by requiring a person holding a non-constitutionally created office (mayor, commissioner) to oversee the sheriff’s statutory obligations. He said that there are currently lawsuits against the state to try and get this verbiage overturned.

“The reason for that is not because we want to be able to use tear gas unchecked, but because we do not want to create a system, later on, to say that the chair of the county commissioners has some sort of special ability, that was not granted to them under the constitution, to approve or disapprove of how other elected officials do their job,” Slack explained. He added that Columbia County was involved in the legal battle.

Slack said that the last part of this section of the law bans police forces from obtaining and using military equipment, defined as ‘firearms and ammunition of .50 caliber or greater, machine guns, armed helicopters, vessels, vehicles, aircraft and tanks, and armed or armored drones, long-range acoustic hailing devices, directed-energy systems, rockets, rocket-launchers, grenades, missiles.’

Slack shared that the confusion is mostly derived from the ‘firearms and ammunition of .50 caliber or greater’ line.

Sheriff Helm explained that this verbiage takes away the use of most shotguns, which are bored larger than a .50 caliber. This would remove the ability to use even less-than-lethal projectiles, including pepper spray for barricaded subjects, including hostage situations, and other projectiles that are used to subdue subjects in dangerous situations.

“40mm rubber rounds, 37mm launchers for OC spray, those sorts of things that we normally launch into a house, are all considered larger than .50 caliber,” Helm said. “According to this law, we are not allowed to use those things.”

He said many local and state law enforcement agencies are removing shotguns from their inventory because they are illegal under the new laws.

Slack and Helm moved on to defining probable cause, which is required for law enforcement to hold someone, instead of reasonable and articulated suspicion.

Probable cause is determined by an officer at the scene, not by information gathered after the incident. It is defined as ‘facts and circumstances based on reasonably trustworthy evidence, that is sufficient to cause a reasonable person, and a reasonably cautious person, to believe that a crime has been committed and the suspect is the person who committed the crime.’ Probable cause is restricted to what an officer sees at a crime scene.

Reasonable and articulated suspicion is defined as ‘when specific and explainable facts lead an officer to make a rational inference that a crime has been committed, and that the suspect may be the person who committed it,’ according to Slack.

With the higher standard of probable cause, officers are no longer able to detain an individual on just suspicion.

Vehicle pursuits were another topic that the Sheriff and Prosecutor tackled. Another change from the legislation is that probable cause is now required for all vehicle pursuits.

Aimed at reducing dangerous, high-speed pursuits, the new law states a pursuit may only take place if the pursuing officer has probable cause to believe the fleeing suspected has committed, or is committing, a violent offense, sex offense, or and escape. Pursuits may also take place if the officer has reasonable and articulable suspicion that the suspect is driving under the influence.

“In addition to that, the pursuit has to be necessary to identify or apprehend the fleeing suspect, and, in addition to that, the fleeing suspect has to pose an imminent threat to the safety of others, and that threat has to be greater than the safety risks the pursuit,” Slack said. “And the law enforcement officer has to receive authorization to engage in pursuit from a supervisor, and that supervisor has to control the pursuit.”

If all requirements are not met, the pursuing officer must end the pursuit.

No-knock warrants were addressed, as well. Such warrants cannot be issued by a Washington State judge and officers may not perform no-knock warrants. There are no exceptions to this rule, Slack said. Officers must knock and announce their presence before they enter a property on a warrant.

“It’s kind of a mixed bag,” Slack said. “No-knock warrants have been abused by police departments in the past. Every month or so, you hear some kind of horror story about officers who negligently go to the wrong address to execute a warrant. They get the warrant on probable cause, it turns out to be faulty, and that’s when people get hurt.”

Slack said the downside to this rule is it could allow someone to arm themselves, and harm someone in the building or outside of the building. It could potentially allow occupants of a building to destroy evidence. Slack used the example of flushing narcotics before the police can enter the building.

Slack recognized that no-knock warrants have been widely abused, and that while he could see the potential for problems, the warrants had to be addressed.

“If you weigh all the circumstances, I don’t know what the right answer is, as far as whether no-knock warrants are a good thing or a bad thing. Certainly, there are a lot of horror stories, so that is something that needs to be addressed in one way or another.”

Slack answered a community-wide elephant, explaining why he cannot just do things the way that he used to. He said that, as an attorney, he will not tell anyone to go against the law.

Another reason, Slack said, is that all justice systems and programs are required to uphold and comply with the law, saying that all in the justice field have a higher duty to comply with all of the laws. Failure to do so could result in licenses being revoked, including the sheriff’s license and ability to practice law enforcement.

“If officers violate these laws, they (Criminal Justice Training Commission, the certifying office within Washington State) could come down, hand me a piece of paper and say ‘hey, by the way, your deputy is now suspended, or their certification is now revoked. They are no longer allowed to practice law enforcement.”

Currently, Columbia County Sheriff’s Office has nine office employees, with one reserve employee. It costs roughly $309 per county resident to fund the office’s budget.