- It stands to reason that dangerous driving on public roads puts people in danger. So, if there are more high-speed police pursuits (and there are), then it makes sense that there would be more injuries and deaths (and there are).
- A new, unofficial policy in New York City resulted in a 600 percent increase in police vehicle pursuits earlier this year with a tenor that one New York Police Department official has called “reckless.”
- In Los Angeles, deaths and injuries from high-speed chases are on the rise, especially for some unfortunate innocent bystanders.
Police chases might be entertaining in the movies, but they can be dangerous to people who get caught up in them. In New York City, a policy shift toward more aggressive tactics resulted in an increase in police vehicle pursuits of almost 600 percent in the first few months of 2023. Over in Los Angeles, about a quarter of the time when law enforcement vehicles give chase, someone dies or is injured. In Michigan, police pursuits have resulted in 60 deaths in the past five years.
Some of these dangerous pursuits are the consequence of quiet rules changes. According to The City, a New York City–based publication, John Chell—the new NYPD chief of patrol, who stepped into the role in December 2022—is behind the push for more enforcement, including more chases. As one unidentified NYPD official told The City, “Chell’s going out himself. On a Friday night at three in the morning, he’s out there. It’s just an aggressive tenor now that’s reckless. I’ve never seen it like this.”
More Than 300 Chases in Three Months
As The City notes, New York City has a rule from its 2016 NYPD patrol guide that requires officers to terminate a vehicle pursuit “whenever the risks to uniformed members of the service and the public outweigh the danger to the community if [the] suspect is not immediately apprehended.” But under Chell, the NYPD’s unofficial pursuit policy change resulted in more than 300 chases in the first three months of 2023, up nearly 600 percent from the first three months of 2022.
This is such a big increase that the city has already had more vehicle pursuits in the first three months of 2023 than it did in all of 2022 (when there were 214 chases). The NYPD has also been making more traffic stops this year (11 percent more in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same time in 2022), which The City said is likely leading to more pursuits.
“Ghost Cars” and Dirt Bikes
When C/D contacted the NYPD for comment, we were referred to a video showing Chell’s announcement of second-quarter NYC crime statistics this week. In it, Chell answered a reporter’s question about the increase in high-speed pursuits by saying that some of the biggest complaints from the community a year ago were about illegal dirt bikes and reckless driving from “ghost cars,” cars without legal tags or stolen vehicles.
“We also realized that the street violence we were getting at the time involved the same types of vehicles as related to robberies, shootings,” Chell said. “So we made a pledge: ‘No more.’ You are not going to drive around this city in a reckless manner and think you can do whatever you want to do with your attitude and commit crimes at that rate.”
The police force has increased its pursuit presence, The City notes, through its plainclothes Community Response Teams. These were set up to, in part, deal with drivers of vehicles that shouldn’t be in NYC: ATVs and motorbikes, cars with temporary plates, and stolen vehicles.
Since NYPD established the Community Response Teams, Chell said, the department has taken 9700 illegal bikes and ghost cars off the street so far in 2023 and 25,000 in the last two years. Chell said calls about reckless driving in NYC are down and vehicle pursuits are up. “I’ll say it again: the days of driving around this city, lawless, doing what you think you’re going to do? They’re over,” he said.
1000+ Deaths or Injuries in L.A. Since 2018
Los Angeles is dealing with its own high-speed-chase problems. According to statistics from the local Board of Police Commissioners cited by the Los Angeles Times and other media, in the 4200 police chases since 2018, over 1000 resulted in death or injury. The true unfortunates, though, are the people who were injured or died in these incidents and who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. About 500 of the pursuit-related injuries (and three deaths) were to unconnected bystanders. The Los Angeles Times notes that the annual number of bystander injuries has been steadily increasing in the past five years.
How to correctly end a high-speed chase has been studied for decades. In 1990, for example, the U.S. Department of Justice issued “Restrictive Policies for High-Speed Police Pursuits,” a report on how different police departments regulated their officers’ chase situations. The report recommended that a police department’s pursuit policy should set the conditions for a chase well before anyone starts speeding away. Defining the environmental conditions in which pursuits may or may not be conducted is important, for example, as is clearly defining the rules for terminating a pursuit.
Vehicle pursuit rules are in place for police departments today. The UCLA Police Department, for example, has clearly defined rules about radio usage, firearm rules (“The use of firearms to disable a pursued vehicle is not generally an effective tactic and involves all the dangers associated with discharging firearms,” the UCLA PD said), and much more in order to to provide officers guidance on how to “[balance] the safety of the public and themselves against law enforcement’s duty to apprehend violators of the law.”
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Contributing Editor
Sebastian Blanco has been writing about electric vehicles, hybrids, and hydrogen cars since 2006. His articles and car reviews have appeared in the New York Times, Automotive News, Reuters, SAE, Autoblog, InsideEVs, Trucks.com, Car Talk, and other outlets. His first green-car media event was the launch of the Tesla Roadster, and since then he has been tracking the shift away from gasoline-powered vehicles and discovering the new technology’s importance not just for the auto industry, but for the world as a whole. Throw in the recent shift to autonomous vehicles, and there are more interesting changes happening now than most people can wrap their heads around. You can find him on Twitter or, on good days, behind the wheel of a new EV.