New York Attorney General Proposes Banning Most Police Chases

Police pursuits are dangerous, deadly, and pointless. I could fill this entire article with links to countless examples, but I’ll spare you. New York Attorney General Letitia James agrees. Her office has released a report recommending a ban on pursuits with a few specific exceptions.

“The evidence is clear: police vehicle pursuits and high-speed car chases can be dangerous and even fatal, and it is time for a change,” said James in a press release announcing the report. “We are proposing these reforms to improve public safety for everyone on the road – drivers, passengers, and law enforcement.”

The report also recommends requiring law enforcement agencies to track standardized data about pursuits and make it available to the public in the interest of transparency. The report notes that no centralized database exists for such data in New York or federally. What information does exist, however, paints a grim picture. Between 1996 and 2015, almost one person per day nationwide died in crashes related to police pursuits. From 2015 to 2020, at least 30% of chases led to crashes, and 5% to 17% resulted in injuries or fatalities. 

Likewise, ending a pursuit is the best way to get the suspect to slow down. Multiple studies showed that once police back off, the suspect slows down, preventing the crashes that a high-speed pursuit can cause. In most cases, police still caught the suspects later.

Some local departments, including New York City and Buffalo, prohibit pursuits for low-level non-violent crimes and traffic infractions. In NYC’s case, this is a complete reversal from the sudden spike of pursuits in 2023. In Albany, officers must consider the danger to the public, the seriousness of the offense, and the possibility of later apprehension. The Office of the Attorney General recommends a statewide ban on police pursuits, with two exceptions:

• “where officers have cause to believe a serious or violent felony has been or will be committed”
• “where a driver’s conduct threatens immediate, severe bodily harm or death to themselves, bystanders, or officers”

So if a fleeing suspect lobs a live grenade, it’s on like Donkey Kong. But if someone flees because their registration expired last month, let them go, then pick them up at home for evading. It’s not worth putting the public in danger for a minor violation. This policy seems to strike a good balance at optimizing public safety by only permitting a pursuit when letting them go would be a greater danger than the chase itself. 

The report calls for statewide legislation to make these recommendations law, similar to Rhode Island’s law passed in 2024. Until then, it calls on police departments to implement such bans on their own. There are plenty of dumb laws on the books, and we don’t hesitate to call them out. However, a pursuit ban would be one law we can get behind.