The Rules of Police Pursuits are Changing
The Rules of Police Pursuits are Changing
In a surprising move, some police agencies are relaxing the restrictions and allowing more pursuits.
The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) has broadened the criteria by which their troopers can engage in a pursuit. In a time where it is the norm for agencies to narrow or nearly eliminate the ability to initiate a high-speed chase, this is an unexpected move. In another turn of events, much more surprising, Portland, Oregon has also loosened its pursuit policy.
These changes took place within a year of Washington, D.C., officer Terence Sutton being convicted of second-degree murder in a pursuit that concluded in a fatal crash. Karon Hylton-Brown was fleeing from a traffic stop on a moped when after running lights and stop signs was struck and killed by a civilian vehicle not previously involved in the chase. Officer Sutton has not been sentenced yet. This was the first time a D.C. officer was convicted of murder.
A moving goalpost
Opinions on police pursuits have evolved over the years. I remember watching the O.J. Simpson slow speed chase live on TV. In the academy in 1994, it was a hotly debated topic between those recruits who were hired by my agency, with a highly restrictive policy, and the recruits from the county sheriff’s office who had much more liberty to chase. Never mind that none of us had ever turned the key on a marked unit at that point. One veteran officer, whose opinions were shaped by decades of experience translated our complex policy in simple terms: if you can shoot them, you can chase them.
An officer assigned to work for me complained about our policy recalling that when he worked in California, he said, ‘…we chase on anything, even an expired tag.’ Eventually a pursuit in the sheriff’s jurisdiction ended tragically and about half a dozen of my friends employed there were strongly disciplined and demoted. Their new policy, partially the settlement of a lawsuit, was now far more restrictive than the policy at my agency.
Policing expert, retired police chief John O’Grady states what we can all agree, “There’s no reason why one innocent life should die due to a law enforcement pursuit.” Over 30 years, my list has only grown of the family, friends and loved ones that I couldn’t bear losing over a minor infraction morphing into a fatal pursuit.
New policy
In 2019, the FHP pursuit policy appeared to be behind the times. It was a recipe for disaster. Troopers could pursue on felony crimes, reckless driving and drunks behind the wheel who won’t pull over. In late 2023, the new policy was rolled out:
“The new policy went into effect almost two weeks ago. It nixed the previous language - noting state troopers can start a chase as soon as someone attempts to run and as long as they determine it's appropriate.” Other updates include troopers on motorcycles now having authorization to initiate a pursuit and in certain cases drive in oncoming lanes. Hearing the reasoning behind these changes caught my interest. The root is advancing law and order and by extension, providing cover for the troopers to practice judgement.
In Florida, bold leadership declares: we have trained our officers, they are expected to make split second decision and we will stand by them through risk even when pursuits have the potential to have terrible outcomes. The rulebook wasn’t tossed in a bonfire. There will still be supervisory judgement calls calling off chases.
Retired sergeant, conference speaker and author, John Kelly, a law enforcement vehicle operations instructor certified in training precision immobilization technique (PIT) maneuver says: “The success or failure of this program’s growth will depend largely upon each troopers ability to use common sense in assessing whether or not to pursue and to utilize the PIT technique.”
We are seeing policy being used to empower officers to oppose lawlessness and disorder, rather than being used like an invisible fence with a shock collar.
When pursuits are allowed, but highly restricted, officers work through a complicated decision tree in a split second. Obviously, when in doubt, don’t pursue. If someone takes off from a traffic stop, and it takes 15 seconds to get back to the car, in optimal conditions, the fleeing vehicle is about a quarter of a mile away. Even quicker officers will experience a gap of 500-1000 feet to close from a standstill.
Portland cops figured it out
Why are they fleeing? It probably has nothing to do with the minor infraction they were stopped for. Portland Police Bureau learned word was on the street that, only with extreme circumstance were officers authorized to pursue.
The City of Portland revised their 2017 restrictive policy, of course, meant to save lives, was in fact costing lives of innocent uninvolved citizens. Their press release notes:
“Some vehicle eludes have ended with serious injury crashes and even fatalities, including a deadly crash in June involving robbery suspect eluding a Gresham Police stop. The driver continued recklessly driving despite no police chasing him and caused a crash that killed a Portland woman (see attached photos, previous news release). Anecdotally, suspects have repeatedly told officers that they are aware of PPB policy, and they are more likely to try to elude thinking their chances of escape are higher in Portland than other nearby jurisdictions.”
Imagine how demoralizing it is to be a trained officer, assigned a powerful vehicle purposefully equipped and marked to chase down bad guys, and be so constrained by regulations and policies, to be mocked by the criminals they hunt. Consider the citizens observing cops being punked by criminals. I’m glad this is changing. More need police agencies need to do the same.
Keep all our officers in your prayers!
#FreeTerenceSutton
References
https://web.archive.org/web/20200607084421/https:/go.mpdconline.com/GO/GO_301_03.pdf
https://www.portland.gov/police/news/2023/12/15/portland-police-shifts-policy-vehicle-pursuits
https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-unjust-pursuit-of-police-officer-sutton
https://news.yahoo.com/florida-highway-patrol-relaxes-chase-003244859.html
https://www.lawenforcementlifecoach.com
Absolutely and they should, in the early 90’s, we chased for everything and would drive the cars into the ground to catch them. Then it became more restrictive on offenses you could chase them and required more input from the driver in regards to speed, road conditions, traffic, etc. We saw a major change in not only this area, but a large portion of how policing was done when the admin stopped going to schools geared towards law enforcement and started attending training put on by Corporate staff/lawyers. These people found a spot where they could claim expertise in the law or “customer service”, problem was they didn’t have a clue about actual police work. To be blunt, most admin of LT and higher stop being cops are start being risk mitigators. As you promote, that seems to be the predominate training attended, Sgt get 3 days of liability training going over basics that most cops know already. LT’s get 2 weeks of this, Capt’s get 1 month, higher ups were sent to the FBI mini academy for 3 months of it. Want to know why you can’t be a cop anymore and your admin doesn’t support you, see above. With this said, watching YouTube and seeing pit maneuvers at 100 mph plus for minor infractions, so lethal force is authorized, he’ll pull up and shoot him in the head because pitting a car at a 100 mph is the same thing. There has to be a happy medium where cops chase the bad guys, but killing innocent people or even the suspect for traffic violations is hard to live with.
I agree 100% that the pursuit laws should be relaxed. It is absolutely ridiculous to have trained Officers on the streets pulling Suspects over; but then tie the Officers hands behind his back!!
This move will make our streets more dangerous than ever! Criminals will have the upper hand if they know an Officer can not pursui them!
Lets stop restricting our Precious Police Officers from doing their job to enforce the law!