SEATTLE– The Washington state Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved legislation that would ban police from tying up suspects, a technique that has long raised concerns because of the risk of suffocation.
The legislation came nearly four years after Manuel Ellis, a 33-year-old black man, died in Tacoma, about 30 miles south of Seattle, face down with his hands and feet tied behind him. The case became a touchstone for racial justice protesters in the Pacific Northwest.
“He was loved and he was someone’s family member,” Democratic state Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, who sponsored the bill, said during the Senate vote. “And I don’t think any of us in this room would want our family member to spend the last moments of their life in this inhumane way.”
Many cities and counties have banned the practice, but it is still used in others. The U.S. Department of Justice has recommended against this practice since at least 1995 to prevent deaths in custody.
Democratic Senator John Lovick, who served as a state trooper for more than 30 years, described his experiences with this coercive technique.
“I’ve lived with the shame of seeing someone tied up and it’s a shame you have to live with,” said Lovick, who co-sponsored the bill with Trudeau. “We know better now. And it is time we put an end to the use of this dehumanizing technique.”
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.