Rep. Spencer Hutchins delivers powerful floor speech on the police pursuit initiative I-2113
Mar 6, 2024
Rep. Spencer Hutchins, R-Gig Harbor, gave a powerful speech on the House floor in favor of I-2113, the initiative to the Legislature that restores police pursuit powers. Hutchins said he was not proud of the increase in crime we are seeing in Washington, but stressed he was proud of law enforcement in the 26th District whose morale has been shattered in recent years. Hutchins said his "yes" vote on the pursuit initiative was him telling law enforcement "I trust you."
further remarks the good member from the
26th legislative district representative
Hutchin thank you Mr speaker and it is a
profound privilege to stand and speak in
support of this initiative following my
good friend from the 24th legislative
district and Mr Speaker I just want to
take a moment to honor him and to thank
those he also uh reflects in terms of
the service that is provided to our
community by people in law
enforcement Mr Speaker I am deeply proud
and honored to be a state representative
to represent the community I've lived in
my entire life
is it it's it is a very unique and truly
humbling experience for me
however there are aspects of this
role that don't make me so proud if I'm
honest there are some realities in our
state that I'm not proud
of Mr Speaker I am not proud that
Washington state is number three in the
nation for incidents of vehicle theft
I'm not proud that Washington state is
number two in the nation for larsy theft
number two in the nation for property
theft highest in the nation for impacts
of retail theft and the lowest or among
the lowest in the
nation for law enforcement officers per
capita
I'm not proud of any of those
things nor
indeed is my
community I hear it from law enforcement
I hear it from law enforcement
leadership and as has been said before
most importantly I hear it from my
friends and neighbors who are living in
the conditions that have been created
for them Mr Speaker during the interim I
was really grateful for the invit ation
from one of my County Sheriffs to join
his regular meeting with him police
Chiefs the uh State Patrol that
represented our
community in their Roundtable
discussion of what they are facing what
they are doing to protect our
communities and to do their jobs I will
tell you while I was not surprised I was
extremely
startled by the
level by the by the low morale and the
level of frustration that I saw in the
faces of the people that I rely on to
provide law enforcement leadership this
initiative is me saying to them I trust
you please vote Yes