Washington Pursuit-Law Periods

What this dataset measures

The published source dataset preserves the curated tables and provenance. This derived publication adds immutable, chart-ready structured results so articles and reusable charts can cite exact calculations without treating descriptive timing as causal evidence.

Geography

Washington State, United States

Unit of observation

One calendar month for the principal Washington and United States series; one calendar year or one legal-policy period in derived tables.

Update cadence

Immutable research release; refreshes require a new version because FBI historical values may be revised.

Curator

FactHub Research Team

Curated data tables

Washington Pursuit-Law Periods

Exact legal effective dates, descriptions, official source URLs, and transition-month cautions used to define descriptive periods.

Unit of observation: One pursuit-law period.

policy-periods.csv text/csv · 1.5 KB (1,521 bytes)

All 4 rows 7 columns Download the file

All 4 rows

effective_date	end_date	policy_id	legal_instrument	description	analysis_note	source_url
2018-01-01	2021-07-24	pre_hb1054	Pre-HB 1054 baseline	Baseline period before the statewide pursuit restrictions enacted in 2021.	The dataset begins in 2018; local agency policies may still differ.	app.leg.wa.gov
2021-07-25	2023-05-02	hb1054_restrictions	HB 1054; Chapter 320, Laws of 2021	Restricted vehicular pursuits principally to specified serious offenses and threat-based circumstances, with additional authorization and safety requirements.	July 2021 is a transition month because the change took effect on July 25.	app.leg.wa.gov
2023-05-03	2024-06-05	sb5352_broadening	SB 5352; Chapter 235, Laws of 2023	Broadened pursuit authority for specified offenses and took effect immediately on May 3, 2023.	May 2023 is a transition month; this was not authority to pursue every suspected law violation.	lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov
2024-06-06	2025-12-31	i2113_broadening	Initiative 2113; Chapter 6, Laws of 2024	Permitted a pursuit based on reasonable suspicion that a person violated the law, subject to necessity, threat balancing, supervision, communication, training, and safety requirements.	June 2024 is a transition month; agency policy and implementation may lag the legal effective date.	app.leg.wa.gov

7 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
effective_date	date	First date on which the legal period applies.	—	observed
end_date	date	Last date assigned to the legal period within this release.	—	derived
policy_id	string	Stable machine-readable identifier for the policy period.	—	derived
legal_instrument	string	Name and session-law citation of the legal instrument, or baseline label.	—	observed
description	string	Neutral description of the governing pursuit standard.	—	derived
analysis_note	string	Caution relevant to temporal analysis, including transition-month treatment.	—	derived
source_url	uri	Official legal source URL for the period.	—	observed

Supporting files

Source snapshots, manifests, quality reports, documentation, and other materials used to produce or review this release.

• fbi-cde-wa-mvt-2018-2025.json Source · application/json · 19.2 KB (19,634 bytes)

  Immutable FBI Crime Data Explorer API response retained as the source snapshot for this release.

• README.md Documentation · text/markdown · 8.4 KB (8,633 bytes)

  Dataset purpose, source selection, article use, file guide, build instructions, and acquisition priorities.

• quality-report.md Quality report · text/markdown · 5.1 KB (5,177 bytes)

  Definitions, automated checks, reporting coverage, conflicting official values, limitations, and publication cautions.

• source-audit.md Documentation · text/markdown · 7.9 KB (8,085 bytes)

  Audit of official public sources, their suitability, discrepancies, and the source hierarchy used for this release.

• release-manifest.json Source manifest · application/json · 3 KB (3,046 bytes)

  Release metadata and SHA-256 digests for the original research artifacts.

• build.ps1 Transformation manifest · text/x-powershell · 9.8 KB (10,008 bytes)

  Executable acquisition, transformation, validation, summary, and digest-generation recipe.

Derived from

This dataset uses data from these FactHub dataset versions.

• Washington Monthly Motor-Vehicle-Theft Offenses, 2018–2025 Version 1

  Dataset derivation

Sources

1. Federal Bureau of Investigation Crime Data Explorer Principal source for monthly Washington and United States offenses, clearances, rates, population, and population-coverage values.

   Retrieved October 7, 2026. U.S. federal government data. Retained source response is redistributed for reproducibility with attribution to the FBI Crime Data Explorer.

2. Washington State Legislature Official source for HB 1054 and its 2021 pursuit-law effective date.

   Retrieved October 7, 2026. Washington State public record. Linked as an official public record; source document bytes are not redistributed in this release.

3. Washington State Legislature Official session law for SB 5352 and its immediate May 3, 2023 effective date.

   Retrieved October 7, 2026. Washington State public record. Linked as an official public record; source document bytes are not redistributed in this release.

4. Washington State Legislature Official session law for Initiative 2113 and its June 6, 2024 effective date.

   Retrieved October 7, 2026. Washington State public record. Linked as an official public record; source document bytes are not redistributed in this release.

Limitations and reproducibility

Fully reproducible from the retained FBI API response with Windows PowerShell 5.1 or newer and no additional packages.: The public release includes the immutable source response, transformation and validation script, generated tables, release manifest with SHA-256 digests, source audit, quality report, and build instructions. Running scripts/build.ps1 without -Refresh rebuilds from the retained response; -Refresh intentionally acquires potentially revised source values and therefore requires a new release.

• The principal series is a statewide aggregate and cannot identify which agencies or counties drove a change.
• Reported offenses are not necessarily unique stolen vehicles, victims, suspects, arrests, recoveries, or pursuits.
• The release contains no vehicle make or model and cannot directly measure the Kia and Hyundai theft wave.
• The release does not measure attempted theft, failures to yield, or incidents in which officers did not initiate a pursuit.
• The release does not contain police staffing, deployment, prosecution, detention, or task-force activity.
• FBI source values can be revised after this immutable release.
• Washington population coverage declines to approximately 95.7%–96.1% in the second half of 2025.
• The United States series is a descriptive benchmark, not a causal counterfactual for Washington.
• All three pursuit-law changes occurred during a month; the descriptive period table excludes those transition months.
• FBI offense totals do not reconcile with separately published WACIC and WATPA stolen-vehicle figures; the measures must not be treated as interchangeable.
• Policy-period averages are unadjusted, highly confounded descriptions and must not be described as causal effects.