Deadly Police Pursuits: Fatalities in Police Chases Increase in 2014

Fatalities in police chases are higher in Michigan than they’ve been in more than a decade, according to an analysis by The Saginaw Index/MLive.com.

In 2014, 27 people died in 23 fatal police chases, an increase from 16 deaths in 14 fatal chases the year prior. The number of injuries – 207 and 203 in 2014 and 2013, respectively – did not substantially change.

Fatal police pursuits occurred last year in Allegan, Berrien, Genesee, Ingham, Isabella, Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties.

The report doesn’t show how many police chases occur in Michigan a year, because the Michigan State Police only tracks those involving crashes. The MLive analysis showed that though fewer crashes are recorded, they’re increasingly deadly.

MSP First Lt. David Simon said that when people fail to stop for police, there’s usually a serious underlying reason.

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“You hate to let somebody like that go,” he said.

Chris Collis, a Southfield attorney representing the family of Jacqueline Nichols, a passenger in a car broadsided by a Michigan State Police cruiser in July 2014, thinks police are too aggressive in giving chase.

“There are circumstances where chases can be appropriate or necessary,” Collis said.

“In our instance, I don’t believe that’s the case. ... The simple fact is that it began with a seat belt violation and ended up in the tragic death of their mother, there’s not much else to say about that.

“This case was nothing but a tragedy that could’ve been avoided.”

Police say the decision to give chase is a judgment call made in a split-second, with consequences either way.

“It’s never a perfect scenario,” Saginaw County Sheriff William Federspiel said, adding that pursuits, while “extremely dangerous,” are “at times necessary.”

» Read the full analysis here.