MPD vehicle pursuits are up, though less than half result in arrest

By Alexandria Staubach

In Milwaukee, the numbers of vehicle pursuits by police and resulting collisions are up, but only 48% of police chases result in apprehension of a subject.

The numbers come from last week’s findings by the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission’s Audit Unit, released at a presentation to the commission on Nov. 7, following the unit’s first-ever examination of vehicle pursuits by the Milwaukee Police Department.

The study showed that nearly 80% of all vehicle pursuits occur in response to reckless driving.

Recommendations from the audit suggest that the MPD internal affairs department is failing to timely address and review the appropriateness of vehicle pursuits and that a “Vehicle Pursuit Committee,” similar to the MPD’s Use of Force Committee, be created.

The study found vehicle pursuits to be inherently dangerous, characterized by the U.S. Department of Justice as “possibly the most dangerous of all ordinary police activities.”

Nevertheless, the audit found that nearly 99% of vehicle pursuits were justified.

In conjunction with the audit, the Fire and Police Commission also released its annual report on police pursuits. The audit sampled and analyzed some of the report's 1,081 instances—a record high—of MPD vehicle pursuits in 2023.

Thirty percent of all pursuits in 2023 resulted in a crash, and in at least once instance police clocked speeds of 117 miles per hour.
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Commissioner Ruben Burgos noted that while most officers who engaged in vehicle pursuits initiated just one chase, “there are 21 officers with more than 15 pursuits.”
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Slide presented to commissioners at the Nov. 7 meeting, showing number of vehicle pursuits per police driver.

While the percentage of crashes has somewhat decreased over time, the volume of police pursuits resulting in crashes has increased dramatically since 2017.

Table from the 2023 Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission's vehicle pursuit report.

Police pursuits are governed by MPD’s Standard Operating Procedure 660. Public outcry over police pursuits that resulted in injury and crashes in 2010 resulted in a restricted version of the SOP that reduced an officer’s authority to engage in police pursuits. That policy culminated in an all-time low for pursuits in 2012 of just 50 instances, per the annual report.

In 2017, though, MPD expanded officers’ ability to pursue vehicles in response to reckless driving. That policy remains in effect today.

While the current SOP technically lists just five circumstances under which officers can initiate a pursuit, it also includes the following caveat: “Members may initiate a vehicle pursuit for either (1) reckless driving observed by the member prior to the initiation of a traffic stop or (2) if the suspect vehicles flees while driving in a reckless manner after an attempted traffic stop for any state law or ordinance violation.”

Earlier this summer, the policy was reined in to prevent chases where the suspected crime was drug dealing.

“I guess we can see the data changing over time, and some of it is related to the terms of the pursuit policy, but a lot of it is also related to what is happening on the street,” said Commissioner Miriam Horwitz.

The Legislature recently enacted harsher penalties for reckless driving. Last month, Milwaukee City Attorney Evan Goyke announced enhanced civil penalties for reckless driving.