OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — A legal memo from the Washington Attorney General’s office says that the state’s new police use-of-force law does not prevent officers from responding to non-criminal calls like mental health and other community welfare calls. Several Washington police agencies had signaled their intent to stop responding to calls for service involving non-criminal activities because of a measure that instructs officers to, among other things, exhaust de-escalation tactics and to leave the area if there is no threat of imminent harm and no crime occurred. Northwest News Network reported that in the memo to state lawmakers this week, attorneys with the office wrote that the law doesn’t alter or limit the authority of police to respond to non-criminal calls for assistance.
Legal memo says reform law doesn’t prevent police response
