Hot Pursit-Car Chases Lead to Pursuit of Chase Standards

It was a rainy November evening in 1989.

Police spot a stolen auto and try to pull it over. Instead, the driver takes off and a high-speed chase ensues through the northwest Chicago suburbs. Speed of the cars approaches 100 miles per hour.

An unsuspecting mother and daughter are proceeding through an intersection in Hanover Park. The driver of the stolen auto careens into their car.

The 15-year-old girl required open heart surgery. The mother suffered crippling injuries. They were lucky to survive.

These facts describe a case in my office. Rare? Hardly. About 50,000 police chases occur around the country each year, according to a study done for the Automobile Association of America's Foundation for Traffic Safety. The 1992 study, conducted by Illinois State University, estimates that between 1 and 3 percent of those chases end in deaths and that one in four of the deaths are of innocent motorists or pedestrians.

It sure makes one pause to consider the acceptable risk factors of such chases in today's congested metropolitan traffic. The Illinois State University study found that up to 63 percent of these pursuits are initiated by the police over a traffic violation.

Certainly, the public interest must be served in stopping crime. But weaving in and out of traffic at excessive speeds for long periods of time over, perhaps, an improper turn, just isn't reasonable.

There is no bright line test. It really becomes a question of balancing the competing factors at the time.

The decision to engage in a car chase and to continue it involves the weighing of the conditions and manner of the pursuit: the danger of the fleeing suspect, the importance of the suspect being caught then, the danger of the chase to others because of weather, time of day, road and traffic conditions, alternatives to a car chase such as a road block or tracing the license plate number.

The risk of harm to innocent people should outweigh any interest in apprehending the alleged wrongdoer. And when the risk of injury to others is unreasonable in relation to the interest in apprehending the suspect, an officer should not initiate or continue the "Dirty-Harry" approach.

And perhaps this is where the real problem lies: many police officers have a Starsky and Hutch mentality. The drama, excitement and machismo of the moment takes hold and suddenly some officers believe themselves to be cops solving crimes on the silver screen.

Reality usually sets in when it is too late. The university study concluded that systematic pursuit training, including judgmental and decision-making elements, does not exist in Illinois in any substantial form. And therein can lie the basis for a lawsuit.

Lawsuits alleging "police malpractice" actually began in 1978 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Monell Department of Social Services of the City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, that citizens could sue local governments for violations of civil rights. Since then, the steady erosion of the sovereign immunity doctrine has been evident against police departments. But this change also coincided with the belief that law enforcement is a science with outcomes that can be controlled. It's evident in the rigorous and detailed state laws and local ordinances which have standardized police procedures, even in emergency circumstances.

But standardization in the area of police pursuit procedures, policy, tactics and guidelines is lacking. These laws vary as to what even constitutes a high-speed chase, which only adds to the difficulty of trying these cases when the driver hopscotches from one town to the next. Pursuit policies in smaller departments is usually non-existent.

This points to the need for statewide standardization. And Illinois courts have only added to the problem. Generally, courts here have held that liability occurs when officers' judgment or conduct is wilful and wanton, which is defined as deliberately intending to cause harm or with a reckless indifference to the rights of others.

If the protection of public health, safety and welfare is the primary obligation of the police officer and if police chases constitute deadly force in an urban area, then it is up to the courts to be bold and send a message requiring officers to strictly follow definitive standards that go beyond merely emphasizing caution and instead discourage high-speed pursuits.

It's only fair to give the innocent pedestrian or driver a running start.