Secure a Safer Washington

Extreme Democrat policies and an unwillingness to address the reality of our crime and drug overdose rates puts your safety at risk. People still do not feel safe in their communities. We need to increase police staffing, make it easier to prosecute criminals, and ensure fair but just sentencing. Republicans want to ensure a safer Washington.

Washington is the worst state in the nation for police staffing per capita. Violent crime, including homicides, are growing faster here than anywhere else in the U.S. People are dying in the street from fentanyl and methamphetamine overdoses. And people are losing their livelihoods as a result of rampant property crime.

Enough is enough.

Majority Democrats have had their heads in the sand, putting the protection of your safety and your rights at a lower priority than protecting the rights of those who victimize you. Some describe the streets of Seattle as the “Wild West” and the city has suffered from the resulting decay.

Republicans worked hard this session to put common sense back into public safety and protect you by supporting responsible law enforcement, encouraging the prosecution and punishment of criminals, and preventing Democrats from enacting even more lenient sentencing requirements.

Listen: Critically needed bills killed by Democrats

Make childhood fentanyl exposure a felony

Senate advances bill to train hotels, motels, Air BNBs to recognize and report human trafficking

Success!

Senate Republican public safety bills that passed this year

  • Initiative 2113: Restores ability of law enforcement to engage in vehicular pursuit
  • SB 5812: Calls on Washington State Patrol to create recommendations for best practices to respond to electric vehicle fires (J. Wilson)
  • SB 5886: Provides firefighter safety funding (Braun)
  • SB 5891: Designates trespassing on a public school bus as a felony (Boehnke)
  • SB 5906: Implements a statewide drug overdose prevention and education program (L. Wilson)
  • SB 6079: Makes juvenile detention records available to managed health-care systems (Boehnke)
  • SB 6099: Creates the tribal opioid prevention treatment account (Braun)
  • SB 6115: Stiffens penalties for speed camera violations in highway work zones (King)
  • SB 6164: Improves the scope of local emergency management plans (Wagoner)
  • SB 6222: Increases the number of district court judges (Wagoner)

 

REPORT:
Washington sees record-high violent crimes in 2023, record-low officers per capita
Nikki Torres

Reporter, Q13 Fox

Democrat majority fails domestic violence victims

It’s really incredible that the party that purports to be about protecting women has failed so miserably on this issue. I was willing to entertain working with the House and Democrats in particular to get the policy done because what’s happening now is frankly disgusting. The state’s family courts are making women with children homeless, plain and simple. While they’re focused on raising taxes or letting criminals out, we have innocent people suffering.

Sen. Phil Fortunato

31st Legislative District

2024 Senate Republican Bills to Secure a Safer Washington

Following is a complete list of public safety bills sponsored by members of the Senate Republican Caucus for the 2024 Legislative Session, along with a citizen initiative to the Legislature.

 

  • I-2113:  Restores ability of law enforcement to engage in vehicular pursuit, even for stolen vehicles
  • SB 5010:  Includes synthetic opioids in the crime of endangerment with a controlled substance (L. Wilson)
  • SB 5025:  Implements technology systems at the Department of Corrections (Dozier)
  • SB 5032:  Extends the felony DUI lookback to 15 years and provides additional treatment options for drug offender sentencing (Padden)
  • SB 5075:  Establishing a judicial sentencing database (L. Wilson)
  • SB 5160:  Expands the list of actions considered organized retail theft in the second degree (Torres)
  • SB 5299:  Provides protection for law enforcement officers (Braun)
  • SB 5361:  Incentivizes cities and counties to hire more commissioned law enforcement officers (Holy)
  • SB 5404:  Increases cannabis revenue distributions to local governments (Wagoner)
  • SB 5477:  Implements the recommendations of the Washington State Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People Task Force (Torres)
  • SB 5494:  Provides incentives to improve the freight railroad infrastructure (J. Wilson)
  • SB 5773:  Expands public defense services (Torres)
  • SB 5791:  Establishes a pilot program to determine the effectiveness of oral fluid roadside information in the enforcement of DUI laws (Padden)
  • SB 5812: Calls on Washington State patrol to create recommendations for best practices to respond to electric vehicle fires (J. Wilson)
  • SB 5886:  Provides firefighter safety funding (Braun)
  • SB 5891:  Designates trespassing on a public school bus as a felony (Boehnke)
  • SB 5906:  Implements a statewide drug overdose prevention and education program (L. Wilson)
  • SB 5909: Provides financial support to tow truck operators for towing and storing electric vehicles (J. Wilson)
  • SB 5929:  Makes exposing children to fentanyl a felony under the crime of endangerment with a controlled substance (Padden)
  • SB 6032:  Encourages a relationship between law enforcement agencies and religious schools (Braun)
  • SB 6054:  Expands the definition of “theft” (Torres)
  • SB 6056:  Requires training on human trafficking awareness to hotel/motel/AirBNB operators (Torres)
  • SB 6075:  Enhances ongoing criminal justice assistance efforts at the local level (L. Wilson)
  • SB 6068: Expands the ability of courts to work with DOC to collect and report more data about foster kids’ adoption/reunification rates (Boehnke)
  • SB 6079:  Makes juvenile detention records available to managed health care systems (Boehnke)
  • SB 6083:  Improves transparency, public safety and independent oversight of the city, county, and regional jail system in Washington (Boehnke)
  • SB 6086: Ensures violent sex offenders don’t get to count ongoing mental-health treatment as “good time” credit against their sentences (MacEwen)
  • SB 6090:  Creates a law enforcement hiring grant program (Holy)
  • SB 6091:  Provides law enforcement certification training for retired law enforcement officers (L. Wilson)
  • SB 6099:  Creates the tribal opioid prevention treatment account (Braun)
  • SB 6119:  Further defines allowable use of force by law enforcement (Holy)
  • SB 6130:  Requires human trafficking training for criminal justice personnel (McCune)
  • SB 6132:  Requires the Washington State Patrol and the Department of Commerce Office of Crime Victims Advocacy to submit a collaborative report on child and human trafficking crimes, trends, and trainings (McCune)
  • SB 6133:  Requires reporting and tracking of retail robberies at cannabis retail outlets (McCune)
  • SB 6134:  Provides $7 million for law enforcement task force to review the mapping of fatal and non-fatal opioid overdoses for recommendations for prevention (Gildon)
  • SB 6142:  Concerns the responsibility to provide funding for prosecution and public defense (MacEwen)
  • SB 6155:  Establishes a statewide policy on camping on public property (Wagoner)
  • SB 6160:  Makes “failure to disperse” a class C felony when it is obstructing a roadway or obstructs traffic (MacEwen)
  • SB 6164:  Improves the scope of local emergency management plans (Wagoner)
  • SB 6169:  Increases the potential pool of law enforcement hires by allowing active and retired law enforcement and military personnel to import certain firearms for personal use (L. Wilson)
  • SB 6179:   Allows liquor licensees to rely upon biometric age verification for proof of age when a person is buying liquor (MacEwen)
  • SB 6182:  Requires health plans to cover obesity medication (Rivers)
  • SB 6184:  Makes deepfake artificial intelligence-generated pornographic material involving minors illegal (Rivers)
  • SB 6201:  Establishes civil penalties for the unlawful sale or supply of alcohol to minors (King)
  • SB 6214:  Increases the seriousness of the crime of animal cruelty in the first degree (Rivers)
  • SB 6217:  Deters robberies at retail establishments (McCune)
  • SB 6222:  Increases the number of district court judges (Wagoner)
  • SB 6224: Creates a pilot program for “safe baby boxes” where mothers can safely transfer their infant to authorities without having to interact with anyone (Fortunato)
  • SB 6235:  Provides additional funding to city and county criminal justice assistance accounts (L. Wilson)
  • SB 6273:  Requires an audit of the juvenile rehabilitation system (Boehnke)
  • SB 6274:  Establishes a grant program to fund school resource officers on public school campuses (Torres)
  • SB 6297:  Recognizes a court’s authority to directly transfer a defendant from jail to an inpatient or residential drug treatment facility (Gildon)