LAPD Calls Its Policy on Chasing Cars Fundamentally Sound

The Los Angeles Police Department does not give veteran officers training in how to handle car chases and did not previously gather statistics about injuries resulting from those pursuits, but its pursuit policy is fundamentally sound and should not be changed, LAPD officials told the city’s Police Commission on Tuesday.

“The Los Angeles Police Department has a viable and legally tenable vehicle pursuit policy,” Police Chief Willie L. Williams wrote the commissioners.

Reviewing the department’s response to a controversial American Civil Liberties Union study of police chases, commissioners generally agreed with department leaders that officers should keep chasing even low-level criminals who flee rather than yield to police. Some added, however, that they were surprised to learn that the department did not conduct in-service training for police officers on how to conduct themselves in car chases.

According to the ACLU study, released in June, the LAPD has engaged in more pursuits in recent years despite efforts to hold down car chases. Those pursuits, the study also found, are resulting in more injuries and deaths to suspects, officers and bystanders.

That report created an immediate stir, raising questions about the effectiveness of the LAPD’s policies and practices for pursuing suspects. Internally, some top LAPD officials were angered by the study and accused the ACLU of trying to hamstring the department’s ability to catch dangerous criminals.

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As they presented their conclusions to the board Tuesday, LAPD leaders did little to disguise their frustration with the ACLU report.

Cmdr. Art Lopez, for instance, began by deriding the study as a “very hastily done report” and added: “They did not have all the facts.”

Lopez and Lt. Charles Kunz said the ACLU ignored the likely consequences of its pursuit critique, and they downplayed the overall seriousness of the issue, saying very few motorists or others are placed at risk by chases.

Still, Lopez did acknowledge that at least some aspects of the LAPD performance were imperfect. He said that previously the department did not gather statistics on pursuit deaths and injuries, but now does.

Commissioners echoed the department officials’ analysis, acknowledging some LAPD mishaps but defending the overall approach to vehicle pursuits. Commissioner Art Mattox said he worried that ordering officers not to pursue unless suspects were wanted for a felony--as opposed to chasing them when they have committed traffic infractions--might encourage reckless driving once motorists became aware that police would not chase them if they fled.

Responding, ACLU spokesman Allan Parachini acknowledged that reckless driving was an important and dangerous problem for Los Angeles. The issue, he said, was how best to control it. Parachini noted that the Orange County Sheriff’s Department uses a much more restrictive pursuit policy, and added: “Public safety and order have not fallen to the ground as a result.”

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Commissioners asked department officials to return to them in 30 days with an update.

In other business Tuesday, commissioners expressed satisfaction that Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed a bill that would have forced police officials across the state to delete all unfounded complaints against police officers from their personnel files.

The Police Commission and the chief--as well as Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block and police reform monitor Merrick A. Bobb--all had urged the veto. They were opposed by police union leaders, who argued that the bill would protect police officers from being punished because of maliciously filed complaints.

The governor’s action, commissioners said after Tuesday’s meeting, should preserve an important tool for monitoring police officers and spotting potentially troubling patterns of misconduct.

Despite the opposition of the local law enforcement leaders, Wilson did sign another bill that calls for the deletion from personnel files only of complaints found to be “frivolous.” The bill he vetoed required deletion of any complaint ruled “unfounded,” a broader and more difficult to define term.