Sheriff seeks definitive policy on car chases

Friday, March 7, 2003 | 10:06 a.m.

Clark County Sheriff Bill Young will be announcing a new policy on car chases sometime before March 15, Officer Jose Montoya, a Metro Police spokesman, said today.

Young identified the issue as a chief concern when he took office in January. The current policy says Metro officers may chase drivers suspected of traffic violations, misdemeanors and felonies. There are no definitive guidelines about when to end chases.

At issue are accidents that involve innocent bystanders when a chase goes awry.

A team of four captains and three lieutenants has been looking at the policy since Young took office to see if it can be improved by such changes as involving supervisors more when deciding whether to call off cars and use helicopters instead for chases.

But Metro already seems to be taking care to use cars less when helicopters can do the job, as a chase Wednesday shows. The chase involved a pair of teens who had allegedly stolen a car. The supervisor called off the cars until the teens crashed into a fence in the desert.

Lt. Ted Snodgrass, the robbery detective involved in the case, said the department has been making such decisions on a case-by-case basis for some time, in an effort to make chases safer for all.

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