Police pursuits are a necessary law enforcement tool, and of the hundreds that occur on the streets of Los Angeles every year, few result in injury to innocent bystanders, authorities say.
Nonetheless, the debate over high-speed chases on busy city streets was expected to intensify after three teen-age boys were killed Tuesday in Van Nuys by a burglary suspect fleeing police. Although not officially considered a police pursuit, three young brothers were killed in San Pedro earlier this year when the truck in which they were riding was hit bya patrol car rushing to the aid of officers.
LAPD officials sought to reassure the public Tuesday that their officers consider the risks to innocent bystanders before initiating a pursuit.
In the 817 pursuits involving LAPD officers in 1994, one bystander was killed and six were seriously injured. But, police noted, more than 100 pursuits were called off.
In fact, police said the patrol car pursuing the burglary suspect in Van Nuys backed off when it became apparent there was traffic in the area, even though it was 2:15 a.m.
Officers are left to decide for themselves when they should initiate a pursuit. But LAPD rules require officers to activate their lights and siren and "weigh the seriousness of the offense against the potential dangers to themselves or innocent citizens."
"Police pursuits are a part of police work," said Sgt. Jerry Powell, in charge of the emergency vehicle operations course for the LAPD. "But when the driving becomes too dangerous, what we do is pull out of the pursuit. . . . We turn it over to the airship."
A Wyoming-based group, Solutions to Tragedies of Police Pursuits (STOPP), cited Tuesday's accident as evidence of the need to restrict police pursuits to chasing violent felons. The group, made up of families of innocent victims of pursuits, also advocates an end to "the Hollywood mind-set that hypes the excitement of hot pursuit" on TV and in the movies.
The group's director was in Washington on Tuesday, meeting with aides to North Dakota Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, whose mother was an innocent victim of a police pursuit and who plans to introduce the National Police Pursuit Act of 1995. The legislation would require law enforcement agencies to establish "hot pursuit" policies and establish a minimum penalty of three months in jail and loss of a driver's license for anyone fleeing from police. In California, traffic violators who flee from police can be charged with a felony if their driving endangers the public.
