Wash. Supreme Court published opinion — 1012055.pdf

Citation: Wash. Supreme Court published opinion — 1012055.pdf
Jurisdiction: Washington (state)
Source verification: official_capture_completeness_unverified
Original Source: https://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf/1012055.pdf ↗

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Without a policy, he observed, police officers recommended or directed landlords to

evict tenants and took it upon themselves to monitor whether tenants were

complying. He also opined that the CFRHP trainings were inadequate and there was

no method to ensure the police officers’ actions comported with their training.

Epperson discovered several police incident reports that failed to describe a crime

or nuisance that would support a notice of violation of the CFRHP and, rather, that

indicated the CFRHP was being enforced against crime victims. In his opinion, the

Sunnyside Police Department failed to meet professional policing standards because

it operated the CFRHP without an official written policy for years, failed to provide

training on how to enforce the CFRHP, and failed to supervise the CFRHP.

Dr. Rebecca Tippett is a sociologist specializing in demography. She

reviewed CFRHP enforcement data and compared it against the demographics of the

rental housing community of the City. She found there were more incidences of

CFRHP enforcement in areas with higher than average concentration of Latinx

households by a “large and statistically significant” ratio. Id. at 729. She found

similar patterns of disparate enforcement in areas with higher than average

concentrations of households led by women and households with children. In Dr.

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For the current opinion, go to https://www.lexisnexis.com/clients/wareports/.
State v. City of Sunnyside et al.
No. 101205-5

Tippett’s opinion, the CFRHP was enforced in a way that “disproportionately and

significantly” impacted Latinx households, households led by women, and

households with children under 18. Id. at 755.

B. Procedural History

The State filed the instant action in Yakima County Superior Court in 2020,