Orlando florida pursuit policy

Considering the restrictions contained within this policy, officers may engage in a pursuit when they have a reasonable suspicion that a fleeing suspect has committed or has attempted to commit a violent forcible felony as described in Section 1, Definitions. Pursuits for misdemeanor offenses, traffic, or civil infractions are prohibited. All other pursuits are prohibited. Many factors have bearing on this decision, including, but not limited to Also, there should be a plan to end the pursuit as soon as practical.

Officers, supervisors, and commanders at all levels have a responsibility to closely monitor the progress of each pursuit. The need for apprehension must be constantly weighed against the potential danger created by the pursuit. Upon engaging in a pursuit, officers will maintain safe and maneuverable control of their vehicles and shall immediately radio headquarters to indicate a pursuit is in progress, giving location, direction of travel, and speed.

Further, the color, year, make, body style, license CYMBAL of the pursued vehicle, and the crime or suspected crime for which the pursued is wanted shall be transmitted. Existing conditions and the availability of other field units will determine the course of action to be taken to accomplish the apprehension. Only the field supervisor or a watch commander will direct other units to converge.

No other units, whether uniformed, investigative, or administrative will enter into emergency operation unless specifically directed to do so by the field supervisor or watch commander. The following tactics and conditions will be adhered to while engaged in a pursuit: Only two to three units will be directed to engage in the pursuit.

These are the primary unit and the assigned backup. The third unit will be a K-9 unit or third marked patrol vehicle for apprehension purposes or for the application of a felony stop.

If appropriate, a supervisory unit may also engage in the pursuit if in a marked vehicle. Additional assistance, if authorized, will be determined by: Pursuing officers and any assigned parallel units shall respond with emergency equipment activated. Motorcycle units will not engage in pursuits. Units shall not follow a suspect vehicle the wrong way on a limited access roadway or on a one-way street.

Units shall not pass one another unless the lead vehicle grants permission. Units shall terminate any pursuit when communications with headquarters or the field supervisor is lost.

A pursuit may be terminated if the suspect has or can be identified for later prosecution. A pursuit shall be terminated if the officer loses sight of the suspect vehicle, other than for a second period. The field supervisor will be immediately notified of this event. Rolling roadblocks, high speed boxing in, heading off, and closing parallel approaches are not permitted. NOTE: Watch commanders or supervisors may take advantage of situations where the fleeing vehicle is slowed to a near stop by traffic conditions or other obstacles and direct assisting police vehicles to box in the fleeing vehicle.

If approved by a watch commander, a stationary roadblock must provide the suspect vehicle with an opportunity to stop e. Lights and flares will be utilized if time permits. No private vehicles will be used in a roadblock situation. Units may not ram a fleeing vehicle unless deadly force is authorized. Approval from a watch commander must also be obtained, unless the use of such force is immediately necessary to protect human life from death or great bodily harm.

Units shall not engage in pursuits initiated by other jurisdictions unless approved by a watch commander and the pursuit would be proper under our policy. The watch commander is also responsible for informing the initiating agency that the pursuit is not authorized under OPD policy.

Air support units shall be utilized whenever possible. The presence of an air unit may negate the need for the continuance of a pursuit and allow officers to proceed at a reduced rate of speed to assist in the apprehension. If so, the officers will deactivate their emergency equipment, follow directions from the air unit, and obey all traffic laws.

Policy Standards Geoffrey Alpert, an international expert who has research high-risk police activities for more than 30 years, states that the policy standards applied to the evaluation of a pursuit as well as to the decision to continue a pursuit needs to include the following three questions: If the pursuit were to result in injury or death, would a reasonable person understand why the pursuit occurred or was necessary? Is the need to immediately catch the suspect more important than the risk created by the pursuit?

Do the dangers created by the pursuit exceed the dangers posed by letting the perpetrator escape? Policy Development Ret. Police Chief Richard E. Schardan, Sr. For this presentation, he based his work on the IACP model policy. Police said it is never easy trying to determine when to chase the bad guys - or when to let them go. Go to related story: The Dallas Morning News.

Bellevue, Washington State Police Chief. The reader may agree that a police vehicular pursuit policy is necessary, and in fact, every law enforcement agency seems to have one.

There are, however, three types of such policies: 1 discretionary, 2 restrictive, or 3 discouraging. A discretionary policy is really no policy at all and leaves decision-making to the ad hoc judgment of whoever happens to be engaged in the pursuit. The restrictive model incorporates the principle of balancing need against risk, as described by the IACP sample vehicular pursuit policy previously cited herein. Finally, the discouraging policy essentially prohibits all pursuits and, although in limited use, is not generally favored, as there will always be some circumstances wherein a calculated risk must be taken to pursue for the greater necessity of apprehending an extremely dangerous criminal.

Policy, however, is only the first component of controlling police vehicular pursuits and will not be solely effective. By example, all law enforcement agencies have deadly force policies, but they are critically reinforced by the other three essential components of training, supervision, and accountability.

Without training in what the policy means and how it is to be fulfilled in actual practice, there will be no compliance. It will simply be a well-meaning document that is neatly catalogued in the General Orders Manual, where it will otherwise only serve to establish civil liability in the aftermath of an uncontrolled pursuit crash.

Training is more than just teaching officers how to drive an emergency vehicle in pursuit and, as with teaching officers how to shoot, pursuit training must encompass equal or greater emphasis on when not to do so as well. Supervision is especially important to provide an objective balance of need versus risk from the perspective of a senior officer not directly involved in the pursuit itself.

The adrenaline dump associated with high-risk exposure is well known to cause tunnel vision, and the pursuing officer can become so focused on "catching the suspect" as to exclude adequate consideration of the inherent dangers to oneself or others Alpert, Perhaps the most important and most frequently missing component of the four criteria for control of police vehicular pursuits is the accountability factor, and this is difficult to understand.

The absence of accountability in any process for controlling human behavior is a systemic deficiency that clearly demonstrates to all concerned that policy, training, and supervision are really meaningless when there are no consequences for ignoring them. If for instance, shooters were not held accountable for compliance with deadly force policies, does anyone doubt that we would have many more bad shootings?

The fact is that police vehicular pursuits seriously injure and kill far more innocent third parties than are ever going to be placed at the risk of a police shooting. Why is that permitted? Officers are strictly prohibited from firing into a crowd, but they are routinely given the latitude to pursue a stolen car through urban streets against traffic control devices until a collision terminates the chase.

This has happened over and over again throughout the United States and will continue to occur until chief policymakers assert effective administrative control over when and how vehicular pursuits are to be conducted.

Can there be any question that this is a critical public safety issue demanding attention? Police experts like professor Geoffrey Alpert and retired police chief D. Van Blaricom say pursuit policies like Chico's are old-fashioned and dangerous. Because of the risk pursuits pose to the public and officers themselves, "hundreds and hundreds" of departments across the United States have adopted restrictive policies, said Alpert, a professor of criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, who has specialized in studying pursuits.

There is a definite trend toward setting policies that spell out what types of suspects police should pursue and what kinds they shouldn't, he said. According to Van Blaricom, who was a police officer in Bellevue, Wash. In another article, Van Blaricom described how he learned first-hand how risky a pursuit can be. As a year-old patrolman on duty in a rural area in the middle of the night, he chose to chase a driver in a flashy car who was going a little over the speed limit.

Van Blaricom suspected the car might be stolen it wasn't. The flashy car raced away, hit speeds of up to and plowed into another vehicle. A woman died, her husband was seriously hurt, and the fleeing driver himself was killed. It's estimated more than people die each year in the United States because of pursuits.

Many, many more are injured. Because of the risks, Alpert and Van Blaricom say police should only pursue suspects in serious crimes. Alpert cites studies showing between 55 and 63 percent of chases are started over traffic violations. About a third of all pursuits involve stolen vehicles, according to Alpert, who said there are better ways to catch such offenders.

Studies show the beliefs that at the end of a chase police are apt to find "a body in the trunk" and that if police restrict pursuits many more drivers will flee are utter myths, the two experts say. Many departments now only pursue over "violent felonies," Alpert said. That's a criterion he favors.

Police chiefs in Florida are among the leaders in reforming pursuit policies he said. He set up a citizens' committee on pursuits and said, I'll do what you tell me.

Orlando's strict policy limiting police pursuits passed its first-year review on Monday without a surge in fleeing criminals thumbing their noses at police. Members of a civilian-police panel who threw out the old chase rules congratulated themselves by calling their work a "model policy" for the rest of the United States. In the 12 months that ended March 8, Orlando police chased suspects seven times compared with four chases in the two months preceding the policy, records show.

During the year, potential chases were called off when motorists refused to stop. The number represented 0. Two fleeing suspects were injured in two crashes during the year-long study, compared with four injuries in fives crashes in the preceding 14 months.

Under the policy, police can only chase someone suspected of a violent forcible felony, such as murder, armed robbery and armed sexual assault. Police assigned to patrol duties initially objected to the restrictions but the "street officer" assigned to the panel predicted his colleagues will understand they are safer now than last year.

Since , high-speed driving and chases killed at least two Orlando police officers and at least two Orange County deputies. Also killed were at least one suspect and one innocent motorist. About people die in pursuits every year across the U. The number of injuries to officers, motorists and pedestrians is not known, but civil lawsuits over chase-related injuries and deaths remain the biggest liability cost to police, Alpert said.

The tougher standard reflects what Police Chief Mike McCoy called Orlando's "community standard," the amount of threat Orlando residents are willing to risk for their safety.

One of the policy's most significant changes was ordering every officer who aborts a chase to shut off the emergency lights and either stop the patrol car or turn and head the other way, said Stanley Stone, a Valencia Community College administrator, who chaired the panel.