OLYMPIA, Wash. — Gov. Jay Inslee signed legislation into law Tuesday afternoon that bans police from hog-tying suspects, a restraint technique that has long drawn concern due to the risk of suffocation.
Senate Bill 6009 will prevent officers from the practice, known as a four-point hobble restraint, which fastens a person's restrained ankles with their restrained wrists behind their back.
The legislation came nearly four years after Manuel Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man, died in Tacoma, facedown with his hands and feet cuffed together behind him. The case became a touchstone for racial justice demonstrators in the Pacific Northwest.
Ellis was walking home in March 2020 when he passed a patrol car with Tacoma police officers Matthew Collins and Christopher Burbank, who are white. There are conflicting accounts of what happened next, but Ellis was ultimately shocked, beaten and officers wrapped a hobble restraint device around his legs and linked it to his handcuffs behind his back, according to a probable cause statement filed by the Washington attorney general’s office.
A medical examiner ruled his death a homicide caused by lack of oxygen. Collins, Burbank were charged with murder and manslaughter. A third officer, Timothy Rankine, was charged with manslaughter. Defense attorneys argued Ellis’ death was caused by methamphetamine intoxication and a heart condition. A jury acquitted the officers in December 2023.
“He was loved and he was somebody’s family member," Democratic state Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, who sponsored the bill, said during the Senate vote. The legislation unanimously passed the Senate floor on March 6. "And I think any of us on the floor would not want our family member to spend the final moments of their life in this inhumane way.”
James McMahan, with the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, testified against the bill in February. McMahan said if the state removes the technique, it would need to be replaced with another tool, which could require additional funding or staffing.
"We ask the Legislature not to prohibit the use of this tactic, necessary to prevent a person from harming themselves or our officers, at least without providing us with a viable alternative,” McMahan said in February.
Many cities and counties have banned the practice, but it remains in use in others. The U.S. Department of Justice has recommended against the practice since at least 1995 to avoid deaths in custody.
The attorney general’s office in Washington recommended against using hog-tying in its model use-of-force policy released in 2022. At least four local agencies continue to permit it, according to policies they submitted to the attorney general’s office that year.