CommunityWatch Talks

Members of the Senate Judicial committee,

I’ve reviewed SB 6432, as well as information from DOJ, DHS, EPIC, the ACLU, and various pieces of legislation from other states designed to allow for the effective and appropriate collection of information by law enforcement.

SB 6432 is an intelligent and functional piece of legislation that allows law enforcement to gather information in an appropriate and standardized manner that does not interfere with civil rights. It’s really unfortunate that we need this Bill, but the fact is that we really need this Bill, to protect the civil rights of Washington’s citizens, and to protect the value of information that is collected through diligent and intelligent investigation where investigation is warranted.

We started looking at fusion centers last summer, and now consider associated methods of data collection to be consistently so injurious to crime prevention, and to the legitimacy of real and necessary police work, that we plan to prioritize the issue to our national membership in the coming year.

This Bill can go through the legislature this year, and Washington can be known as one of the states that acknowledged an civil rights problem and dealt with it in an expeditious and progressive manner, or you can wait until there are more lawsuits and awareness has risen to the point that people are wondering “What is going on with our legislators?”

I hope to see that this is through executive committee and on to the next within the next few days. If not, please let me know why so I may relay that information to our Washington membership.

Thank you. I appreciate your time, consideration, and your efforts on behalf of Washington citizens.