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Attempting To Elude

Is Eluding a Police Officer a Felony?

  • Attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle, also known as “felony flight,” is a felony in Washington State.
  • Any driver of a motor vehicle who willfully fails or refuses to immediately bring his or her vehicle to a stop and who drives his or her vehicle in a reckless manner while attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle, after being given a visual or audible signal to bring the vehicle to a stop, shall be guilty of a class C felony.

How can a driver be sure that a pursuing vehicle, or its driver, is indeed law enforcement?

  • The definition of the “attempting to elude” includes specific conditions that the police officer must satisfy in identifying him or herself and in signaling a vehicle to stop:
  • The signal given by the police officer may be by hand, voice, emergency light, or siren. The officer giving such a signal shall be in uniform and the vehicle shall be equipped with lights and sirens.
  • The officer need not give the signal from the pursuing police vehicle but may give a signal from the roadside.
  • It is an affirmative defense to this section which must be established by a preponderance of the evidence that: (a) A reasonable person would not believe that the signal to stop was given by a police officer, and (b) driving after the signal to stop was reasonable under the circumstances.

What does it mean to attempt to elude a police vehicle?

Washington courts have stated that the criminal offense bans willfully failing to immediately stop in response to the signal to do so by law enforcement and driving in a reckless manner in an attempt to elude law enforcement. “Reckless manner” means a rash or heedless manner, with indifference to the consequences.

Consequences and Penalties

Like any felony offense in Washington, attempt to elude carries the potential for extremely serious consequences. A felony conviction threatens the possibility of disenfranchisement, loss of firearm rights, and mandatory DNA sampling. Attempting to elude, as a class C felony, carries a maximum sentence of:

  • Five years in prison
  • Maximum $10,000 fine.

The presumptive range will vary depending on an individual’s criminal history.

For a driver with no criminal history at all, the presumptive sentence range is:

  • 0-60 days in custody.

A 12-month presumptive sentence enhancement is available if the prosecutor can prove that:

  • the driving resulted in threat of physical injury or harm to one or more persons other than the defendant or the pursuing law enforcement officer.  


A conviction for this offense will also result in a one-year license revocation by the Department of Licensing.

  • Drivers revoked as a result of a conviction for the charge of attempting to elude are eligible to apply for a restricted license from DOL, the occupational restricted license, which allows drivers to commute to work or school during periods of license suspension.

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