COLUMBUS – High-speed police chases are fine in the movies but they can be dangerous in real life and now Gov. Mike DeWine wants a state law enforcement panel to come up with new standards for pursuits that will cut down on the number of serious accidents that happen during chases.
At least 352 people, including one officer and 147 bystanders, were killed in pursuits in Ohio between 1982 and 2014, according to a report from the Ohio Collaborative Community-Police Advisory Board, a group DeWine formed to study vehicular pursuits in 2016, when he was Ohio’s Attorney General.
The board issued a report in November 2016 in which it made several recommendations for making pursuits safer, such as limiting speeds and improving officers’ training.
“Far too often people are killed or seriously injured because a driver chooses to flee from police. I believe a minimum standard for law enforcement vehicular pursuits would help encourage a consistent approach to pursuits, which would be beneficial in instances where pursuits cross jurisdictional lines and could ultimately help save lives,” DeWine said while addressing the board’s meeting in Columbus Monday.
Ohio law requires that law enforcement agencies adopt policies on pursuits but does not specify what those guidelines should be, leaving it up to the individual police and sheriff’s departments.
In its 2016 report, the board recommended the use of lights and sirens in all pursuits, limiting the number of pursuing vehicles is limited to two or three, reducing speeds and using caution when approaching stop signs and traffic signals.
The board reported that the seriousness of the offense and the likelihood of the suspect being apprehended later should be taken into consideration when officers decide whether to give chase.
“Property crimes such as theft and stolen vehicles may not be worth the risk created by a vehicle pursuit,” the report’s authors wrote.
The report recommends officers recognize that if the suspect can be apprehended somewhere else later, the risks associated with a high-speed pursuit should be “weighed against the danger should the suspect remain at large.”
Officers should distinguish between violent felonies, property offenses, impaired drivers and traffic violations.
The report also recommends that officers receive periodic training on the pursuit policy, best practices and safe driving techniques.