By Alexandria Staubach
The Milwaukee Police Department on Monday amended Standard Operating Procedure 660 governing police pursuits. The change narrows the conditions for officers to pursue a suspected “mobile drug dealer,” meaning a drug dealer operating out of a vehicle. The policy previously permitted pursuit whenever “occupant(s) of the vehicle are engaged in drug dealing proximate in time to the initiation of the vehicle pursuit.” Under the new version, pursuit is “limited to only incidents in which the observed drug dealing is directly related to a substantive drug investigation or long term investigation,” and then only when a suspect “flees while driving in a reckless manner” and after an attempted stop or a refusal to stop. Review of SOP 660 comes in response to the second-longest pursuit in 2023, which extended 49.9 miles, lasted 55 minutes, and resulted in recovery of a small quantity of narcotics, said MPD Assistant Chief Craig Sarnow during testimony before the Milwaukee Common Council’s Public Safety and Health Committee last week. “We continuously look at this to hone in because there is a risk to the community every time we engage in a pursuit” and “we have seen very tragic endings,” said MPD Chief of Staff Heather Hough at last week’s hearing. In 2010, following four incidents in which third parties were injured, MPD adopted “one of the most restrictive policies in the nation,” which “essentially handcuffed” MPD, said Sarnow. In 2017, at the direction of the Fire and Police Commission, the policy was relaxed to its current state following an uptick in reckless driving, Sarnow said. The 2017 changes “took the hand cuffs off,” and “pursuits have gone up significantly,” he said. MPD statistics show that 14% of all vehicle pursuits in 2023 resulted in crashes, up 30% from 2022. Hearing such policy updates is new for the council's committee and follows the Legislature’s adoption of Act 12 last summer. The act largely stripped the Fire and Police Commission of authority to set policies for the police and fire departments, transferring that power to each department’s chief. The Common Council has taken the position that it retains oversight authority and can veto policy by a two-thirds vote, although that position is under review by the city attorney’s office. “We’re the only game left,” said Public Safety and Health Committee Chair Ald. Scott Spiker. When questioning the change to SOP 660, Spiker seemed at odds with MPD. “Hands will be tied now in a way that they weren’t before,” said Spiker. “Has the world changed enough since (2017) that we should now make a different judgment?” he asked. “What we’re talking about is what officers may do,” said Leon Todd, executive director of the Fire and Police Commission, at the committee hearing. “It doesn’t mean they always can, always will, or always should.” The commission also considered the change to SOP 660 and was unanimous in finding it “reasonable and positive,” said Todd. According to MPD statistics, vehicle pursuits occur most frequently between 7:00 p.m. and 9:59 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Densely populated MPD District 1, which encompasses a five-square-mile area of downtown and the East Side, saw an 83% increase in pursuits from 2022 to 2023. But District 6, on the far southside of Milwaukee, saw a 72% decrease in pursuits from 2022 to 2023. Most pursuits in 2023 occurred in District 7 on the northwest side of Milwaukee (262 pursuits, up 19% from 2022); District 2 on the near southside (253 pursuits, up 25%); and District 3 on the west side of Milwaukee (246 pursuits, up 54%).
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