LAPD looks to Santa Monica’s pursuit policy
The Los Angeles Police Department has modeled part of its new pursuit policy after Santa Monica’s, which attempts to protect the public from high speed chases that may not be justified.
After several highly public police chases that have either killed or seriously injured innocent bystanders, the LAPD decided to review its police pursuit policy. The city’s Police Commission ordered a review of the policy in early 2002 when a 4-year-old girl died in a crash during a chase of a stolen car.
LAPD officials turned almost immediately to the Santa Monica Police Department, which only engages in pursuits that involve individuals suspected of committing felony crimes.
Now, LAPD officers will be barred from pursuing vehicles that do not stop after minor infractions, such as traffic violations, under an experimental policy approved Tuesday by the Police Commission. “(Santa Monica’s policy) actually led to something that was approved today,” said Police Commission spokeswoman Tami Catania. “It’s not as restrictive as Santa Monica, but our commission wanted to look at Santa Monica as a reference point.”
The policy, to be tried for 12 months, is intended to reduce the chances of collisions and injuries during chases. It will not go into effect for 60 to 90 days so that the department can train officers on the revised pursuit policy.
Pursuits of non-yielding vehicles will still be allowed for such things as reckless driving or auto theft. But the officers will take weather conditions and the possibility of injuring bystanders into account.
In Santa Monica, police only engage in pursuits if officers can clearly articulate that the suspects have committed a felony crime with use of deadly or threatened force, said SMPD Lt. Frank Fabrega. That includes residential burglaries that have occurred and the full extent of the crime is not known by officers, Fabrega added.
The SMPD’s policy, which was modified in 1991 when Police Chief James T.
Butts Jr. came to Santa Monica, leaves it up to the responding officer to judge whether he should initiate a pursuit, as well as terminate it.
“The chief’s belief is that the importance of stopping a vehicle has to be compared to the risk involved,” Fabrega said. “The purpose of the policy is to protect the general public and officers of the Santa Monica Police Department from the dangers which are inherent in pursuits.”
LAPD’s new policy mirrors the SMPD’s in that a supervising officer, such as a sergeant on duty, is involved in the pursuit.
“The supervising officer needs to be part of the pursuit to make the determination,” Fabrega said. “Without seeing what’s going on, it’s difficult to make the decision. We want the constant assessment by the supervisors.”
The supervising officer should terminate the pursuit if the chase endangers the public or police, and if it doesn’t follow the department’s policy.
“Our main goal is public safety and to maintain our officers’ safety and residents in the community,” Fabrega said.
He added that it’s not worth endangering lives to chase a person if she can be tracked down later with information like license plate numbers that officers can gather at the scene.
“We can follow up and make an arrest down the line,” Fabrega said.
SMPD will not give chase if there is clear and reasonable danger to the public and the police, as well if the violator can be identified and later arrested. If an officer does initiate a pursuit, he is required to call police dispatch and inform them of his location, direction of travel, speed, the reason for the chase, the number of suspects involved and what the conditions are on the road, including traffic levels, Fabrega said.
LAPD also will review how officers handle pursuits, much like what SMPD does. After every chase, SMPD officers are required to write a memo explaining their roles. A pursuit review board is convened consisting of a high ranking SMPD officer, a member of the police union and an officer of equal rank to the officer involved in the pursuit.
The board then determines whether the pursuit followed the SMPD’s policy. If it didn’t, an internal investigation is launched and the supervising officer, watch commander and officer involved could be disciplined either by being suspended or required to be re-trained.
SMPD last year was involved in six pursuits, Fabrega said.
In 2001, Los Angeles police initiated 781 chases, resulting in six deaths and 139 injuries. In 2000, infractions such as traffic violations led to 59 percent of police chases, and injuries occurred in about half the pursuits in which fleeing drivers refused to stop.
Whenever possible, LAPD officers in cars will turn over pursuits to police helicopter crews. The department also will look into using devices such as “spike strips” to disable fleeing vehicles.
“We’re saying to officers, if you have a reasonable belief that a felony or misdemeanor is being committed, has been committed or is about to be committed, then you can certainly initiate a pursuit,” Deputy Police Chief George Gascon said at the commission meeting. “The message we do not want to send out to officers is not to engage.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 8, 2003. Read the original PDF.