In the waning hours of their 2023 session, lawmakers pushed through a 43-page bill to strengthen Washington’s safety net for victims in domestic violence cases
The legislation takes steps to expand training for cops and judges, toughen requirements on suspects to surrender weapons and deploy special teams to identify and intercede in cases with a high risk of resulting in homicide. Supporters were glad to see the bill pass. But it’s also narrower than some had hoped for.
The legislation will also deliver a model policy for the use of electronic monitoring, with victim notification technology, and establish a research center at the University of Washington to suss out the most effective strategies for preventing violence among intimate partners.
‘’This was the most comprehensive bill on domestic violence this session. We will make very significant forward progress,” said 32nd District Rep. Lauren Davis, D-Shoreline, the sponsor.
Yet it could have done even more, she lamented, had it not been sliced up by House colleagues and then trimmed further in the Senate.
“Absolutely, it will make an impact. But the impact will be more muted than I hoped,” she said. “Given the breadth of the problem, this is an inadequate response.”
Rep. Dan Griffey, R-Allyn, echoed the sentiment April 22 before the House took final action on House Bill 1715.
He said the legislative slimming “reduced the effectiveness of this bill considerably.”
But it needed passing, he said, because “a little...
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