This bill would add a new section to chapter 79.24 RCW that requires the Washington state law enforcement memorial to include the names of Washington state law enforcement officers who are ruled by the United States Department of Justice to have died in the line of duty under the federal "Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits Act of 2003." Once the DOJ makes that determination, the officer's name must be added to the memorial at the memorial's first wall update following the determination. This is a procedural change about memorial inclusion, not a new crime or a change to penalties. The new section is written to apply retroactively for five years to include officers who died in the line of duty on or after January 1, 2020. The provision references the DOJ as the determiner and the Washington state law enforcement memorial as the entity required to add names. Important details are not included in the extracted text: no specific section number within chapter 79.24 RCW is assigned; the terms "dying in the line of duty" and "first wall update" are not defined; the process and timing by which the DOJ makes determinations under the federal act are not described; and administrative responsibility, funding, or implementation steps for adding names are not specified. The bill was referred to the Washington State Senate Committee on State Government, Tribal Affairs & Elections and was read for the first time on 02/13/25.

If enacted, the state law will require the Washington state law enforcement memorial to add the names of officers whom the U.S. Department of Justice has ruled to have died in the line of duty under the federal Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits Act, and those names must be placed on the memorial at the memorial's next wall update after the DOJ determination. The change also reaches back for five years to include officers who died on or after January 1, 2020, so more names could be added at upcoming updates and families of those officers would receive formal recognition on the state memorial. The immediate practical effects fall on the memorial operators, who will need to add names whenever the DOJ issues qualifying determinations; that likely increases their workload and the number of inscriptions to procure, but the bill does not say who will pay for or manage those costs. The Department of Justice’s rulings become the trigger for inclusion, while officers and their families stand to gain recognition; however, key implementation details such as what counts as a “first wall update,” how “dying in the line of duty” is defined for this purpose, and funding or administrative responsibility for the updates are not specified and remain uncertain.