Police in fewer car chases

Jen Lawson

Monday, Feb. 9, 2004 | 11:05 a.m.

After a more restrictive pursuit policy took effect last year, the number of Metro Police car chases dropped 20 percent, according to an internal memorandum.

Between March 15, 2002 and Dec. 31, 2002, there were 193 police chases. From March 15, 2003, when the new policy went into effect, through Dec. 31 there were 154.

"This is definitely good," Assistant Sheriff Ray Flynn said. "We believe that the tightening of the pursuit policy as well as the additional training last year (led) to the lower number of pursuits."

The statistics also indicate that the department stopped a five-year upswing in the number of chases.

The number of pursuits increased by an average of 22 percent per year from 1999 to 2002, according to a Metro memo.

Officers were involved in 138 pursuits in all of 1999; 187 in 2000; 225 in 2001 and 251 in 2002.

The number dipped to 206 for all of 2003.

"We're very pleased," Flynn said. "Not only have we stopped the increase, we've reversed the trend."

Shortly after taking office, Sheriff Bill Young assembled a team of high-ranking officers to revamp the department's longtime pursuit policy in order to increase safety and limit liability.

The policy allowed police to chase those suspected of any crime, including minor traffic offenses.

Under the rewritten policy, criteria such as the seriousness of the crime, traffic, weather, road conditions, whether the need for immediate apprehension outweighs the dangers created by the chase and whether police know the suspect and can make the arrest later should be taken into consideration when deciding if an officer should continue a chase.

A supervisor must constantly re-evaluate the circumstances of the chase and should abort it if it becomes too dangerous.

Helicopters, which can track vehicles safely from above, should be called in if possible, and stop sticks, which are strips with spikes that are put down in font of fleeing vehicles, should also be considered.

Other methods such as having additional police cruisers following a chase on parallel streets and having a cruiser with its lights and sirens off following a suspect's vehicle at a safe distance were also added as options.

Undersheriff Doug Gillespie said the tighter pursuit policy "addresses some of the concerns we had in terms of our prior pursuit policy. ... The committee that was established to look at the policy did a very good job in addressing these issues."

Chase policies vary in other Clark County police jurisdictions.

In Henderson, police can give chase if the suspect is trying to avoid arrest for a felony offense and if the suspect would cause serious bodily harm or death if allowed to flee.

Henderson officers cannot chase a vehicle for a misdemeanor traffic violation unless the suspect has already committed a felony prior to fleeing.

Police in North Las Vegas can chase people suspected in misdemeanor crimes or traffic offenses, but should end if police have the suspect's name and can make the arrest later; when the suspect's vehicle is out of sight; and when the officer believes the danger created by the chase outweighs the need for immediate apprehension.

Metro's pursuit-related crashes have also decreased since the new policy went into effect.

In 2002, Metro officers were involved in 43 pursuits that ended in crashes. The officers were determined to be at fault in 19 of the crashes, Lt. Carlos Cordeiro, of Metro's traffic section, said.

The number of pursuit-related crashes dropped to 33 in 2003, and officers were deemed negligent in 13 of them.

"Anytime there's a reduction in crashes, it's good news," said Erin Breen, director of the Safe Communities Partnership at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, a program aimed at reducing traffic crashes.

In rewriting the policy, Breen said "the sheriff made a decision to put public safety first."

However, one person, Roberta Stroh, 57, has been killed since the new policy went into effect.

Stroh, a mother of three and grandmother of four, was heading through the intersection of Jones Boulevard and Alta Drive on Sept. 25 when a teen being chased by police failed to stop at a red light and broadsided her car.

Police were pursuing 16-year-old David Gatlin because he allegedly had been seen trying to steal property from a car in a parking lot. Police later discovered the car Gatlin was driving had also been stolen.

Young determined the chase fell within Metro's pursuit policy guidelines.

The numbers suggest the new policy has resulted in safer chases, but whether the other goal of the policy change -- limiting liability -- has been fulfilled is unclear.

Litigation costs aren't easily determined, Gillespie said, because they are tracked according to fiscal year. However, that data is something Metro's brass will be analyzing once it becomes available.

Recently Young said he didn't want officers to feel as if they couldn't aggressively go after criminals, but he saw the need for a tightened policy.

"It's a tough balancing act," he said.

Flynn said he "wouldn't want to work for a police department that didn't chase suspects. The word would get out eventually."

Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada and a frequent critic of police practices, commended Metro on the numbers.

He said while there is still room for improvement, this "is a good example of the way in which serious policy review and refinement have improved the performance of the police department."