Police Chases Put LA County Residents At Unwarranted Risk, Grand Jury Finds

LOS ANGELES, CA — Police in Los Angeles County are putting innocent bystanders at risk with ill-advised car chases, the Los Angeles civil grand jury concluded.

Highlighting the death of a 15-year-old pedestrian killed on Venice Boulevard in a stolen car chase, a new grand jury report concluded that police chases are putting people at risk even though most pursuits don’t involve serious crimes. In other words, the risk usually isn’t worth the payoff, according to the grand jury.

In analyzing the CHP, LAPD and other police departments' 421 chases in Los Angeles County over a one-year period ending in September of 2016, the grand jury made key findings:

1. Police pursuits are causing unnecessary bystander injuries and deaths.
2. Most vehicle pursuits are not provoked by serious crimes.
3. Vehicle pursuits are not assured of satisfying police goals – for example: arrests, reducing dangers to the public, issuing citations.

Over that one-year span, three chase suspects were killed and 45 people were injured in police pursuits. That amounts to an 11 percent rate of death or injury, according to the grand jury.

“At the national level, the Department of Justice stated that police pursuits are the ‘most dangerous of all ordinary police activities.’ Police chases have killed nearly as many people as justifiable police shootings. 322 people died as a result of police pursuits in 2013,” according to the grand jury report. “California leads the nation in high-speed pursuit deaths. Hopefully the state and local jurisdiction will enact legislation to limit this kind of senseless tragedy.”

“Police pursuits are inherently dangerous, and that is why the Los Angeles Police Department takes every step to develop tactics and mitigate the risk posed by these danger interactions,” said LAPD Public Information Director Josh Rubenstein. “The Los Angeles Police Department is currently reviewing the civil grand jury’s report and will have a response to the findings within the 90 day period.”

The grand jury also concluded:

• The sheriff’s vehicle pursuit training facility EVOC is substandard.
• The LAPD vehicle pursuit training facility sets a high standard.
• Neither the sheriff nor the LAPD have a policy for recurring or continued vehicle pursuit training. As a result, continuous quality of driving skill in the field cannot be assured.
• Current vehicle pursuit policies do not reflect the best statistical information with respect to causation by serious crimes, the likelihood of law enforcement successes, and the probability that injuries or deaths that may occur.
• Pursuit training could be made more realistic if actual field injury data associated with pursuits were incorporated in the training.
• The legal protections of police involved in vehicle pursuits lower the barriers to initiating pursuits.

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Photo: Los Angeles police investigators work the scene of a fiery crash that killed two stolen-car suspects when their vehicle hit a tree and burst into flames during a high speed chase along Hollywood Boulevard near Bronson Avenue early Sunday, May 14. Officials say the 1993 Honda weaved erratically in and out of traffic before the fiery crash around 2 a.m., not far from a nightclub where revelers were gathered on a sidewalk. No pedestrians or motorists were hurt. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)