A Central Washington lawmaker says it’s time to for the Legislature to fix the public safety crisis in our state.
Representative Tom Dent says the Legislature must provide support this session for law enforcement officers across Washington to do their jobs, or crime will get even worse in our communities.
Dent says many officers have left the state, left the job or retired due to policies from the Legislature in recent years that have hamstrung their profession.
“We have lost so many police officers in this state. It is almost unbelievable. They just said, ‘no, we are done. We can’t do this.’ And I’ve lost some good friends, I mean, that were police officers and they’ve gone to other states. This doesn’t work for us anymore.”
The Moses Lake Republican lawmaker notes Washington ranks 51st in police officers behind all states; homicide is up by 96 percent since 2019; 61 percent of violent crimes go unsolved; Washington ranks number 1 in retail theft, number 2 in property crime, and number 3 of all states for auto thefts.
“We’ve got to put some teeth back in our laws and let our police officers arrest these people. And if they deserve jail time, that’s where they should go.”
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