SB 5853 — Protecting elected officials from political violence by creating the statewide emergency public official notification system.

S-4468.1S-3533.1 SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5853 State of Washington 69th Legislature 2026 Regular Session By Senate State Government, Tribal Affairs & Elections (originally sponsored by Senators J.

Wilson, Holy, Lovelett, McCune, Wagoner, Dozier, Torres, Short, Warnick, Braun, Nobles, Bateman, Fortunato, Frame, and Trudeau)Trudeau READPrefiled FIRST12/08/25. TIME 02/02/26.

Read first time 01/12/26.

Referred to Committee on State Government, Tribal Affairs & Elections.

1 SSBSB 5853 Hortman and her husband's murder and taken whatever precautions necessary to avoid harm.

(1) The secretary of state, with the assistance of the military department, shall establish a statewide emergency public official notification system that:

The militarysecretary departmentof state must:

(2) The secretary of state, with the assistance of the military department, shall ensure that information submitted to the statewide emergency public official notification system is shared with the statewide 911 emergency communications system as defined in RCW 82.14B.020, to be contained in a database that is intended for the purpose of display at a public safety answering point with incoming 911p. voice or data, which is exempt from public inspection and copying under chapter 42.56 RCW.

p.2 SB 5853 911 voice or data, which is exempt from public inspection and copying under chapter 42.56 RCW.

2 SSB 5853 (3) The militarysecretary departmentof state shall establish rules and procedures for:

and (d) Data storage which must be in compliance with existing data protection practices used by law enforcement;enforcement and the secretary of state.

(4) For the purposes of this section, "public official" means a person holding office under a city, county, or state government, or the federal government who performs a public function and (e)in Notificationso doing is vested with the exercise of incidentssome sovereign power of statewidegovernment, impactand includes all assistants, deputies, clerks, and employees of any public officer and all persons lawfully exercising or assuming to exercise any of the departmentpowers or functions of enterprisea services.public officer.

(4) The secretary of state may share a list of public officials who are eligible to enroll in the emergency public official notification system with the military department.

(5) For the purposes of this section, "public official" means a person holding office under a city, county, or state government, or the federal government who performs a public function and in so doing is vested with the exercise of some sovereign power of government, and includes all assistants, deputies, clerks, and employees of any public officer and all persons lawfully exercising or assuming to exercise any of the powers or functions of a public officer.

(5) Develop forms, submission dates, and methods as necessary for all public safety answering points to submit reports;

3 SSBSB 5853 (5)(6) DevelopProviding forms,staff submissionsupport dates, and methodsassistance asto necessarythe forcertification allboard publicestablished safetyunder answeringRCW points38.60.030 tothat submitincludes, reports;but may not be limited to:

(6) Providing staff support and assistance to the certification board established under RCW 38.60.030 that includes, but may not be limited to:

p.(b) All public safety answering points expenditures for administrative and operational costs and expenses of the 911 emergency communications system;

4 SSB 5853 (b) All public safety answering points expenditures for administrative and operationalp. costs and expenses of the 911 emergency communications system;

and4 SB 5853 (c) Any additional data that may be identified by the 911 advisory committee;

and (10) Providing data and information to the militarysecretary departmentof state when any public official enrolled in the statewide emergency public official notification system contacts a 911 emergency communications system and upon confirmation of a targeted threat to any public official as provided in section 2 of this act.

(1) Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, records maintained by the secretary of state and military department for the statewide emergency public official notification system is exempt from public inspection and copying under section 5 of this act.

(2) Information maintained by the militarysecretary departmentof state for the statewide emergency public official notification system may be provided to a public official upon a request for inspection.

All or part of any records, reports, data, or information contained therein maintained by the secretary of state and military department for the statewide emergency public official notification system under chapter 38.52 RCW are exempt from disclosure under this chapter, except as provided in section 4(2) of this act.

5 SSBSB 5853