Washington state lawmaker pushes to ban hog-tying by police following Manuel Ellis’ death

SEATTLE — Lawmakers in Washington state are expected to consider a proposal Monday to ban police from tying up suspects, nearly four years after Manuel Ellis, a 33-year-old black man, had his hands and feet tied together behind him died. became a touchstone for racial justice protesters in the Pacific Northwest.

The restraint technique has long raised concerns due to the risk of suffocation, and although many cities and provinces have banned the restraint technique, it is still used in others.

Democratic Senator Yasmin Trudeau, who sponsored the bill, said she doesn’t want anyone else to experience the “dehumanization” Ellis faced before his death.

“How do we deal with people’s need to enforce the laws, but do it in a way that treats people as we expect them to, as human beings?” she said.

Over the past four years, states across the U.S. have rushed to enact sweeping police reforms, prompted by protests against racial injustice and the deaths of George Floyd and others at the hands of law enforcement. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, few have banned the tendency to hold back.

California in 2021 banned law enforcement officers from using techniques that “pose a substantial risk of positional asphyxia,” where the position of the body interferes with the ability to breathe. That same year, Minnesota banned correctional officers from using restraints unless “deadly force is justified.”

The U.S. Department of Justice has recommended against this practice since at least 1995 to prevent deaths in custody, and many local jurisdictions prohibit it.

The Washington attorney general’s office recommended against the use of tying in its model use-of-force policy released in 2022. At least four local agencies continue to allow this, according to policies they submitted to the attorney general’s office that year.

The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said hog tying would still be allowed, but declined to comment on the bill. One of the department’s deputies was involved in restraining Ellis, whose face was covered with a spit hood when he died.

Ellis was walking home in March 2020 when he passed a patrol car carrying Tacoma police officers Matthew Collins and Christopher Burbank, who are white. Burbank and Collins said Ellis tried to get into a stranger’s car and then attacked officers when they confronted him in the city about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Seattle.

Witnesses said the officers jumped out of their car as Ellis walked by and knocked him to the ground.

He was shocked and beaten. Officers wrapped a restraint system around his legs and connected it to his handcuffs behind his back while he remained in the prone position, according to a probable cause affidavit filed by the Washington attorney general’s office.

After the bump was applied, Ellis stopped moving, the statement said.

A medical examiner ruled his death a homicide caused by lack of oxygen. Collins, Burbank and a third officer, Timothy Rankine, were charged with murder or manslaughter. Defense attorneys argued that Ellis’ death was caused by methamphetamine intoxication and a heart condition, and a jury acquitted them in December.

Trudeau, who represents Tacoma, said she made sure Ellis’ sister, Monet Carter-Mixon, endorsed her efforts before introducing the bill.

Democratic Senator John Lovick, who served as a state trooper for more than 30 years, joined Trudeau in supporting the bill.

Republican Rep. Gina Mosbrucker, a member of the House of Representatives Public Safety Committee, said she looked forward to learning more about the legislation.

“If it turns out that this form of restraint for combative inmates is in any way dangerous, then I think the state should raise a grant and some money to purchase and train alternative methods to ensure that the officer and the arrested person is safe,” she said.

The bill comes a few years after a wave of ambitious police reform legislation passed in the state in 2021.

The legislation included requirements that officers could use force only when they had probable cause to make an arrest or to prevent imminent harm, and required them to use appropriate de-escalation tactics when possible.

The following year, Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee passed bills that established elements of that legislation, including making it clear that officers may use force to help detain or transport people in behavioral health crises.