The numbers don’t lie—police pursuits are getting more dangerous

By Alexandria Staubach
 
The Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission’s recent report on 2025 Milwaukee police vehicle pursuits confirms that chases, crashes, and fatalities all increased from 2024 numbers.
 
FPC Executive Director Leon Todd presented the annual vehicle pursuit report at a meeting in late May.
 
Total pursuits by the Milwaukee Police Department, up from 957 in 2024 to 970 in 2025, were described as “a slight increase” by Todd.
 
The number of police pursuits culminating in a dangerous outcome rose. In 2024, 304 police pursuits ended in a crash. In 2025, that number was 321.
 
Nine of those 321 crashes resulted in a fatality, six of which were to a third party (neither the officer nor the suspect), according to the report. No police chase fatalities occurred in 2024, and only one resulted in a fatality in 2023.
 
Reckless driving persists as the primary impetus for vehicle pursuit, composing 76% of all chases, up from 62% in 2024. Speed adds fuel to already dangerous situations, with 70% of all pursuits in 2025 involving police vehicles traveling greater than 75 mph, the report says.
 
“These pursuits are much faster, much more dangerous,” said Todd at the hearing.
 
Police pursuits are controlled by MPD’s Standard Operating Procedure 660. In 2010, public outcry over pursuits ending in injury resulted in a restricted policy. Those restrictions brought pursuit numbers to an all-time low of just 50 pursuits in 2012.
 
Revision of the SOP in 2017 expanded the categories of permitted vehicle pursuits, according to the report.
 
Amendments in 2019 provided additional oversight requirements under limited circumstances and required the tracking of instances where police did not initiate a pursuit, a statistic that is down 17% over the prior year.
 
In 2022, the FPC adopted changes that clarified a pursuit was permissible for instances of reckless driving, again expanding the SOP’s reach. 

Graph included in the FPC's 2025 Vehicle Pursuits Report, showing volume of vehicle pursuits over time.

​​This latest report comes almost a year after MPD implemented a rule change that prohibited pursuits in response to suspected drug dealing, intended to rein in some of the 2017 expansions to the policy. Last year, MPD Chief of Staff Heather Hough said, “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.”
 
Only 18 or 1.86% of the 970 police pursuits in 2025 were related to drug offenses, whereas 31 or 3.2% of pursuits in 2024 were related to drug offenses. 
 
In September 2025, the FPC took more than an hour of testimony from the community after a police pursuit ended in a fatal crash the day before.

“As it stands, SOP 660 does not benefit this community,” said Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression representative Kayla Patterson at the time.
 
“The last few months highlight gross incompetence” and a “general shameful agenda prioritizing property over lives,” Patterson said. She cautioned that “if the turnout in the room is any indication, the community is getting restless.”
 
No such community showing occurred at the May meeting, and Todd’s summary of the report’s key findings went without comment from the commissioners and MPD.
 
Additional modification to SOP 660 occurred in February, clarifying that vehicles traveling at a reckless speed alone do not warrant pursuit.  Instead, a vehicle must also be engaged in collisions with other vehicles or objects, forcing other vehicles to take evasive action to avoid collision, or failing to stop at controlled intersections without slowing or stopping.
 
“This new restriction on vehicle pursuits can be evaluated for its effects in the 2026 Vehicle Pursuit Report,” the report says.