Rep. Roger Goodman (45 Legislative District, D-Kirkland) has been picked to chair the House Public Safety Committee.

“In a heartbeat, a violent crime or a natural disaster can take away everything — your home, your family, your life,” Goodman said. “Our state laws must do whatever is possible to prevent crime and respond to floods, wildfires and earthquakes, because lives are literally at stake.”

Goodman, an attorney and criminal justice expert, has served as vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee for the last six years, which handles non-criminal issues involving the law and courts.

“It’s important to protect citizens from crime while safeguarding individual liberties,” Goodman said. “What’s great about Washington state is that police, prosecutors, citizens and prison officials have all worked together to do things that don’t just sound tough, but actually work.”

Washington’s criminal justice laws and programs are often picked for review by the state’s Institute for Public Policy, which looks at whether new laws and programs actually reduce crime and whether reforms are cost-effective.

“We’ve learned that some things that sound great on TV or in the newspaper actually cost a lot of money and don’t prevent crime at all,” Goodman said. “And we’ve found that things that don’t get the big headlines actually work well to stop crime and save taxpayer dollars. So it’s important to keep trying different options and testing them rigorously, because in the end, we should do what works, not just what sounds good.”