Other advocacy info

Letters & Email

2010 - Madison, WI

Jonathan,
Thank you for contacting me. One of the difficulties I had in writing the story is that I hadn't talked to any local advocates for curtailing police chases. Please let me know if any advocacy is being done here to change local policies or if a change in policy is introduced in Madison or at UW-Madison so I can do a follow up story.
Thanks again,
Matthew DeFour
Wisconsin State Journal
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From: Jonathan Farris
Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2010 9:07 PM
To: Matt Defour
Subject: Fatal police-chase crash is second in five months for University of Wisconsin-Madison cops

Dear Mr. DeFour,

Thank you very much for your article today. I believe you have begun to touch on some of the more significant issues related to police pursuits.

I must say that, as described, this was not much of a "chase" because you and I drive 30 MPH on most Madison streets. A police chase or police pursuit in most situations would be defined as exceeding the speed limits and thus endangering all parties, including the pursuing officer. Of course we'll learn more about this specific case as the investigation continues.

I would like to share some thoughts on police pursuits. I'll explain why I am so interested once you've read my comments.

Bystanders are not sometimes killed - they are often killed. How big a problem are police chases? Plenty big.

• FBI statistics show that 300-500 lives are lost annually as a result of high speed police pursuits.

• In a 9 year period from 1995-2004, 1100 fatalities were innocent victims

• The majority of police chases are pursuing drivers for minor traffic violations (estimates as high as 83%).

• In 2005 alone California reported there were 7,942 pursuits, 1,200 people injured and 32 killed.

• According to statistics compiled by the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety, there were more than 2,000 police pursuits in the state in 2003, resulting in 538 accidents, 322 people injured and four deaths.

• Of 15 people killed in connection with New Jersey police chases from 2000 to 2002, seven were drivers or passengers in third-party vehicles who were not the target of the pursuit.

• Hundreds of police officers themselves have been killed and injured in high speed chases. In the 2000-2002 period in New Jersey, the statistics show in Hudson and Essex counties more police officers were injured than people in the cars they were pursuing.

• A study by the California ACLU reported that from 1993-1995 there were 5,776 chases in Los Angeles in which 47 persons were killed and 363 officers, 1240 suspects, and 314 innocent victims were injured.

• The Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration maintains statistical data regarding vehicular accidents. Unfortunately the statistics are under reported because there are no mandatory forms utilized by states to report fatalities and motor vehicle accidents such as police pursuits. However, from 1982 through 2004, 7,434 people were reported to FARS as being killed in high speed pursuit cases.

• Law officers argue that the option to chase violent criminals is important, and shielding agencies from lawsuits is key in allowing pursuits. No such valid argument has been made relative to chases instigated due to simple traffic offenses.

• Every state and jurisdiction has different laws and policies relative to pursuits.

• Most pursuits put innocent bystanders at risk, but when those bystanders are injured or killed, the law provides no recourse.

Many police organizations and, in my experience most police associations, endorse police pursuit with limited or no officer restrictions, using the same comments used by Mr. Crivello in your article. Basically he's saying that if we place any controls or rules on the pursuing officers that criminals will run free and anarchy will reign. Well I'd respectfully tell you that he is dead wrong. Well written and strong pursuit policies protect the officers, and the public. Better laws will fix many of the other problems. More on that below.

As you expand your research another fallacy preached is that many of the accidents or deaths occurred "after the pursuit was terminated." Yet many (I would suggest most) departments do not specifically define exactly how an officer must terminate the pursuit. As an example, Minneapolis Police intelligently define and enforce termination of a pursuit by turning off emergency lights and pulling onto a perpendicular cross street so that the officer is totally out of the perp's rear view mirror.

There is a balance, however, and police departments and pursuing officers must carefully weigh each situation (hence the reason why all jurisdictions need a formal police pursuit policy). So another critical issue that needs to be defined is when a pursuit should not be instigated. The vast majority of police chases are as a result of misdemeanor traffic violations. If the pursuit is for anything other than a felony it should not be allowed (by policy) in residential / population areas. Period. If the pursuit is after a criminal brandishing a weapon and threatening public safety (a felony), then the pursuit will likely need to continue. But if the pursuit is as the result of a traffic violation (misdemeanor), then write down their license number and pick them up later.

Police officers have incredibly difficult jobs and must make split-second decisions. But just like the rest of us, they must be bound by strict rules and regulations. Pursuing near and into residential population centers for misdemeanors or simple larceny is truly stupid. The criminal in every case is always to blame. But any police policy that allows an officer to go 70 MPH down any residential street is flawed. This happens across the country every single day. In these cases innocent victims should not be dying.

So, if we can't get the policies to be identical, at least require basic intelligence be incorporated by all police departments.

• Each and every police organization needs a formally documented policy regarding police chases. Even bad procedures and bad rules are better than no policies.

• If the pursuit is for anything other than a felony it should not be allowed in residential / population areas.

• Pursuing as a direct result of certain felonies may be warranted. No one should try to tie the police so they can never pursue a criminal. And sometimes the outcome can be very painful (the death of innocent victims).

Your point that there are differences in every single jurisdiction is right on point. However, the ONLY way that will ever change is if we have legislators with the guts to stand up and force intelligent legislation mandating statewide police pursuit policies across all jurisdictions. I have yet to meet or read about such a legislator. Also State and (even better) Federal laws need to be changed. Significantly stiffer, mandatory jail sentences and monetary fines for offenders fleeing an officer need to be enacted.

So why do I care? Because every single day, for the rest of my life, I will be forced to live through the horrific outcome of a high speed police chase which never should have happened.

I am not a police chase expert, but I do have a different perspective than most of your readers. I lost my 23 year old son in 2007 - killed when the taxi in which he was riding was struck by some idiot fleeing a State Trooper outside of Boston. That particular chase was not necessary - it was started as the result of a simple misdemeanor traffic violation and went from the interstate onto the narrow streets of New England's most densely populated city. The taxi was struck in an intersection - the SUV was going 76 MPH. My son died. The taxi driver died. My son's girlfriend was unconscious for four weeks and ultimately spent four months in the hospital. Now just over three years later she has still not fully recovered. Where my son died the local city police have a strict no-chase policy, but that didn't stop the state trooper.

Police pursuits, for the most part, are merely a passing newspaper story or television headline, forgotten by readers and viewers a few minutes later. But for the hundreds of relatives and thousands of friends of these innocent victims, the pain is real and never goes away. Never.

I invite you to take some time at my website, www.paulfarris.org, to learn about just one innocent victim. Another wonderful resource is PursuitSAFETY (http://pursuitsafety.org/ ). I would also be pleased to spend some time visiting with you and talk about solutions and how the press can drive positive changes.

My son was an innocent victim. My story is real life. My life will always be incomplete. My life will be filled with daily sadness. But if I can keep chipping away and get even just a few pursuit policies changed, then perhaps you or one of your readers may be spared from a loss that could have been prevented.

Thanks and best regards,

Jonathan Farris

By MATTHEW DeFOUR | mdefour@madison.com | 608-252-6144 | Posted: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 7:18 pm

A 24-year-old Waunakee was killed in a crash in Madison early Wednesday morning after he fled police. It was the second such police-chase fatality for UW-Madison police in five months. STEVE APPS

A fatal crash following police pursuit in Madison early Wednesday morning was the second such incident in less than five months for UW-Madison Police.

In Wednesday's incident, Michael J. Benkert, 24, of Waunakee, was killed and his passenger was injured after he tried to elude police. According to UW-Madison Police Sgt. Aaron Chapin, an officer tried to pull over Benkert on West Johnson Street for swerving out of his lane.

Benkert then drove at 30 mph for 16 blocks before turning right on Ingersoll Street and speeding off. When the officer caught up to Benkert's vehicle at Williamson Street, it had hit a parked vehicle and flipped.

The agency is still reviewing the incident and has asked the Madison Police Department to conduct an independent review.

On Feb. 28, Darrell H. Pantazes, 51, of Skokie, Ill., was killed after driving the wrong way on West Johnson Street. When he tried to flee police, he hit another vehicle, then a light pole and the side of a building. A review of the incident cleared police of any wrongdoing, Chapin said.

Though officers in both cases appear to have acted appropriately, the number of deaths sticks out because fatalities related to police pursuits are rare. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in some recent years there have been two police pursuit fatalities in the entire state.

Bystanders are sometimes killed

Though fatalities are rare, a third of those people killed in police pursuits nationally have been innocent bystanders, according to data compiled by NHTSA data.

Earlier this year in Milwaukee, four people died in three unrelated police pursuit incidents, including a young woman standing on a street corner.

In late March, following the third incident, the Milwaukee Police Department changed its policy on pursuits so that officers may only chase a speeding vehicle if they have probable cause that the person committed a felony.

Milwaukee Police Association President Michael Crivello said the change was unnecessary and demoralizing for police. The innocent bystander was killed after police had stopped their pursuit based on existing policies, he said.

"The greatest issue is to public safety," Crivello said about the more stringent policy. "It basically emboldens the criminal."

UW-Madison police are reviewing their policy following Wednesday's incident, but they did the same after Feb. 28 incident and made no changes, Chapin said.

Trend toward more restrictive policies

The state required police agencies to develop pursuit policies in the mid-1990s following a McFarland crash that injured state Rep. Doris Hanson and killed a passenger in her car. The person who hit Hanson's car was fleeing from a Dane County sheriff's deputy.

"The general trend across the country has been pretty consistently toward more restrictive policies on pursuits," said UW-Madison law professor Michael Scott.

The state law requires a local pursuit policy, but doesn't model language to create uniformity around the state, Scott said. Madison police, the State Patrol and UW-Madison Police policies have similar language that encourage the officer to use discretion based on the time of day, weather, traffic, severity of the crime and other factors, but they are now less stringent than Milwaukee's policy.

"There is a strong argument to be made at a minimum of regional policies so that all agencies within a county would be following the same policy," Scott said. "Ideally agencies would have a standardized unified policy for the entire state."

The total number of reported police pursuits in Wisconsin has declined in recent years, from 1,298 in 2006 to 958 last year, according to data collected by the State Patrol. The numbers are incomplete; of the more than 700 police agencies in Wisconsin, only 421 have provided data, even though state law requires agencies to report the information to the state each year.

Since 2002, UW-Madison police have engaged in between two and six pursuits a year. By comparison, Madison police have engaged in pursuits between 11 and 28 times a year and Milwaukee police between 161 and 276.

Below is a letter that the Farris family and so many of Paul's friends have sent to legislators and news outlets. We also have a professionally produced Police Pursuit DVD (linked on YouTube), to elevate the issue of unnecessary police pursuits.

Dear Madam or Sir,

We are writing you about an issue that continues to weigh heavily on our hearts, unnecessary high-speed police chases. We would be

honored if you could just give us several minutes of your time to read this letter and to watch the enclosed 3-minute DVD. We think you'll

understand why this is so very important to us and how it may one

day directly impact you.   

In the early morning hours of May 27, 2007 our son, Paul Farris, died as the result of a truly senseless high-speed police chase in the

Boston suburb of Somerville. Paul and his girlfriend Katelyn were

coming home from a night out when an SUV being pursued by the

Massachusetts State Police slammed into the taxi in which they were riding. Paul, who we were told was wearing a seatbelt, was ejected

from the taxi and died at the scene; the taxi driver Walid Chahine

died a week later, leaving a wife and 4 year old son; Katelyn was

severely injured and was unconscious for almost four weeks. She

remained in Massachusetts General Hospital for four months and then continued her rehab with her parents in New York. Her ongoing

physical and emotional recovery is nothing short of miraculous. This

has been an indescribably sorrowful and difficult time for our families and friends. Most of us will never completely heal from the emotional scars.   

Paul was an amazing 23 year old. He graduated Magna Cum Laude
from Tufts University in 2007 and had been working as an insurance
claims adjuster for a year. He had already taken his LSATs and
planned to attend law school in the fall of 2008. Paul had absolutely everything going for him. Katelyn had a terrific job at one of Boston's premier spas. Katelyn had absolutely everything going for her.

Paul Farris is dead   

Walid Chahine is dead   

Katelyn Hoyt continues her recovery   

Because Katelyn was uninsured, MA and NY Medicaid (taxpayers)
covered her medical bills which were in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.   

WHY? Because the police officer made a poor decision. He pursued a traffic offender through the most densely populated city in all of New England at speeds likely exceeding 70 miles per hour - for a simple
traffic offense. The driver of the SUV was not involved in a felony,
had not robbed a store, had not fired a gun, or done anything else
that evening that was endangering lives. Yet the officer, like hundreds of others across the US every single day, decided that a
high-speed pursuit was acceptable. Would that officer or their
command have made the same decision if they were held to the
same legal standards as ordinary citizens when it comes to causing death or great bodily harm? Absolutely not.   

How big a problem are high speed police pursuits?   

• FBI statistics show that 300-500 lives are lost annually as a
  result of high speed police pursuits.    
• In a 9-year period from 1995-2004, 1100 fatalities were
  innocent victims.    
• The majority of police chases are pursuing drivers for minor
  traffic violations (estimates as high as 83%).    
• California reported in 2005 alone there were 7,942 pursuits,
  1,153 people injured and 32 killed.    
• According to statistics compiled by the NJ Department of Law and Public Safety, there were more than 2,000 police pursuits in the state in 2003, resulting in 538 accidents, 322 people
  injured and four deaths.    
• Of 15 people killed in connection with NJ police chases from 2000 to 2002, seven were drivers or passengers in third-party
  vehicles who were not the target of the pursuit.    
• Hundreds of police officers themselves have been killed and
  injured in high speed chases. In the 2000 to 2002 period in NJ, the statistics show in Hudson and Essex counties more police
  officers were injured than people in the cars they were
  pursuing.    
• The Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) of the Federal
  Motor Carrier Safety Administration maintains statistical data
  regarding vehicular accidents. Unfortunately the statistics are under reported because there are no mandatory forms utilized by states to report fatalities and motor vehicle accidents such as police pursuits. However, from 1982 through 2004, 7,434
  people were reported to FARS as being killed in high speed
  pursuit cases.    

Law officers argue that the option to chase violent criminals is
important, and shielding agencies from lawsuits is key in allowing
pursuits.
No such valid argument has been made relative to chases instigated due to simple traffic offenses.   

Every state and jurisdiction has different laws and policies relative to pursuits.   

Most pursuits put innocent bystanders at risk , but when those
bystanders are injured or killed, the law provides no recourse.   

State and perhaps even Federal laws need to be changed. Stiffer,
mandatory jail sentences for offenders who flee officers as well as
the ability for innocent victims to pursue legal recourse against all
parties involved in the chase .   

The City of Somerville has a very well written and very strict
no-pursuit policy because they recognize the danger it poses to their citizens. Yet throughout the country we see cities, counties and
states all having different standards, requirements and policies. And almost every one of those policies gives the pursuing officer
immunity, regardless of the circumstances or location of the pursuit. So more innocent victims will continue to be killed and maimed until
the laws are changed.   

Interestingly, the Massachusetts State Police with no announcement or press release quietly changed their pursuit policies less than four months after Paul died. Additionally, in early 1538 there was police
pursuit legislation introduced (two bills) in Massachusetts by State
Representatives Christopher Fallon and Brad Hill. Our voices have
already made a difference. The more voices we add, the more likely we'll achieve additional successes throughout the country.

If there were greater accountability and responsibility placed upon

both the offender and the pursuer, Paul, Walid, Katelyn, their families and their friends would be living their lives in peace, rather than with
pain, sorrow and broken hearts that cannot be healed.

We need your help and we need your involvement. Please take a few more minutes, watch our DVD, and think about how you can help
stop senseless high speed police pursuits.

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And the carnage continues

Exactly three years from Paul's death… 
Trooper going 120 mph before crash

Thursday, May 27, 2010

A preliminary accident report shows a North Carolina Highway Patrol officer was traveling at 120 miles per hour before a crash that killed a grandmother and an 11-year-old child. 

Grandmother, child killed in trooper chase

Investigators say Trooper J.D. Goodnight slowed to 95 mph before he hit a car driven by 55-year-old Sandra Allmond.

Allmond and 11-year-old Taylor Strange were killed by the force of the impact that split their car in half - leaving the engine and front wheels on the other side of the highway. Two other children in the back seat survived the crash and were treated and released from a local hospital.

According to the Highway Patrol, Goodnight was traveling southbound on the Interstate 85 Business Loop just before noon Sunday in Jamestown when he clocked a Buick Skylark traveling northbound at 80 mph in a 55 mph zone. He activated his blue lights and turned around headed north. He slammed into Allmond as she was turning left at a green light at the River Road intersection.

It's not clear if Goodnight was using his siren. The accident report released Thursday says witnesses did not hear one.

It also says Allmond "failed to yield" and witnesses reported that Goodnight steered to the right to try and avoid the crash but was unable to.

Click here to read the report (.pdf)

At a morning news conference, Highway Patrol Commander Colonel Randy Glover told reporters he has agreed for the Attorney General's Office to do an independent investigation into the crash.

"Our hearts go out to the families," said Glover. "I am a family man myself and I have an 10-year-old girl. It rips at my heart."

But Glover said troopers have a job to do.

"They try their best to keep everyone safe, but sometimes things happen," he said.

Glover pledged to get to the bottom of what happened.

"We will answer the questions that arise in this investigation," said Glover.

A final internal report on the crash is expected in 6-8 weeks. In the meantime, Goodnight is on paid leave.

Officials said they were looking at their policies as a result of the crash. They said there was no internal policy that sets a maximum speed allowed in pursuits. Officers are expected to rely on their training to determine what is safe.

Family reaction

Strange's mother Michele Casler blamed speed for the crash in comments to reporters Wednesday.

Related Content

Radio calls released in trooper crash

Grandmother, child killed in trooper crash

NC Highway Patrol averages 7 wrecks a week

911 calls released in Trooper crash

"Speed was a cause of this tragedy. I believe that if it was not for speed this would not have happened," she said.

Casler said her daughter was about to graduate from the fifth grade.

"She was my only child and was my whole world," she said.

The First Pentecostal Church is accepting donations for the Allmond family. For more information, contact the church at (336) 884-5661 or Pastor Lark Lewis at (336) 561-7811.

(Copyright ©2010 WTVD-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) 

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By    Larry Copeland, USA TODAY 

Innocent bystanders account for one-third of those who are killed in high-speed police chases, a USA TODAY review has found. The deaths have several communities around the USA wrestling with whether to restrict pursuits only to suspects in violent crimes. 

About 360 people are killed each year in police chases, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Proponents of more restrictive chase policies say the fatality numbers are lower than the real toll because there is no mandatory reporting system for deaths in pursuits.

Geoffrey Alpert, a professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina who has studied police pursuits since the 1980s, says the actual number of fatalities is "three or four times higher." Another complicating factor: bystanders killed after police stop chasing suspects — even seconds afterward — are not counted.

About 35%-40% of all police chases end in crashes, Alpert says. He says the nation's 17,000 police departments are moving toward more restrictive chase policies "because chasing someone for a traffic offense or a property offense is not worth the risk of people's lives and well-being."

Although police chases are dangerous, police who allow suspects to flee run the risk that offenders will do even greater harm to citizens, says Michael Crivello, president of the Milwaukee Police Association and a city police detective.

"They're fleeing because they may be wanted for sexual assaults, shootings, homicides," he says. "There are pursuits that are successfully concluded all the time, but you never hear about those."

Milwaukee changed its policy on pursuits last month after four people were killed by drivers fleeing police in three separate incidents in a two-month period. Police there now must have probable cause that a violent felony has occurred instead of reasonable suspicion before initiating a chase.

Crivello says the change demoralized officers. "They feel as though they are minimized as professionals, because they are able to make the proper decision relative to a chase," he says.

Victim can't 'be replaced'

When he was killed by a driver fleeing police last month, Apostle Anthony Taylor had just left the church he had led in the Churchill section of Richmond, Va., for nearly two decades.

Taylor, 44, was a vital cog in the community, working to deter young men from lives of crime, advocating for public education and providing cheap meals for senior citizens, say those who knew him.

"The loss to this community, based on his contributions, will never be replaced," says Virginia state Delegate Delores McQuinn, a Democrat who lives about two blocks from Taylor's church and knew him for 18 years. "We lost a humanitarian, a visionary leader, a rising star, not only in the church but in the community."

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Taylor was killed when his pickup was hit broadside by a man fleeing police in neighboring Henrico County. Authorities say police chased the man after he sped off when an officer approached him at a checkpoint.

Henrico County's pursuit policy is less restrictive than Richmond's. Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones has called a summit of the region's police departments for early May to work out procedures for handling police pursuits that cross into other jurisdictions that may have different chase policies.

"Our No. 1 ambition is to make sure we have safety for our people," Jones says. Henrico police say the officers in the chase followed procedures.

Already, Richmond-area police are making changes, Jones says. "We found out that the radio equipment we were using was not universal," he says. "Even if we wanted to be in contact, we could not have been. We are changing out equipment. And we already have … an agreement for notification so that if (another police agency) sets up a checkpoint within a mile of our boundary, they're going to notify us."

"The sad thing is when departments make changes, it's usually after something bad happens, and the public wakes up and says, 'What's going on here?' " says John Phillips, head of PursuitWatch.org, a non-profit group advocating safe police chases. Phillips' sister, Sarah, 20, was a bystander killed in a police chase in Orange County, Fla., in 2001.

Trying to save lives

Restrictive chase policies save lives, says professor Alpert. He reported in a National Institute of Justice research paper that police chases in Miami-Dade County dropped from 279 a year to 51 after the department implemented a more restrictive policy.

"These police chases through our streets are killing innocent people," says Candy Priano of Chico, Calif., executive director of the non-profit group Voices Insisting on Pursuit Safety, which she founded in 2002 after her daughter, Kristie, 15, was killed as a bystander in a police chase.

Michigan state Rep. Bert Johnson, a Detroit Democrat, is pushing to place restrictions on chases, including the conditions under which they can occur and the number of police vehicles that can participate. "We see high-speed pursuits as a bullet with four wheels," says Ron Scott, spokesman for the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, which supports the legislation.

By contrast, St. Petersburg, Fla., this month loosened its policies to allow police to chase those suspected of "forcible felonies" in addition to "violent felonies," says Maj. Michael Puetz. "It's a tweak of the policy to let us go ahead and pursue burglary suspects," he says. "It's still a restrictive policy."

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Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 8:24 PM

Subject: An Act relative to motor vehicle police chases

To the Members of the Massachusetts Joint Committee On Public Safety and Homeland Security 

Dear Committee Members, 

Senator Hedlund recommended that I write you directly. I was recently made aware of the bill presented by Senator Hedlund and Representative Cantwell entitled An Act relative to motor vehicle police chases(text below). I believe a similar bill was introduced in 2007 by Representatives Fallon and Hill, but it apparently went nowhere. This is a critically important issue to my family and me. I appreciate your taking several minutes to read this email. 

The issue of police chases may one day directly impact you or someone you know. I pray that does not happen, but without significantly more legislation and controls, the odds are increasing just as pursuits continue to increase. 

In the early morning hours of May 27, 2007, my son, Paul Farris, died as the result of a senseless high-speed police chase in Somerville. Paul and his girlfriend Katelyn were returning from a night out when an SUV being pursued by the Massachusetts State Police slammed into the taxi in which they were riding. Paul, who we were told was wearing a seatbelt, was ejected from the taxi and died at the scene; the taxi driver Walid Chahine died a week later, leaving a wife and 4 year old son; Katelyn was severely injured and was unconscious for almost four weeks. She remained in Massachusetts General Hospital for four months and has continued her rehab with her parents in New York. Her ongoing physical and emotional recovery is nothing short of miraculous. This has been an indescribably sorrowful and difficult time for our families and friends. Most of us will never heal from the emotional scars. 

Current Massachusetts penalties for fleeing a police officer are barely more than a downtown Boston parking fine. If there were real teeth in pursuit law (a felony with required prison time) then many chases would never start. So please know that my family (many of whom currently live in Massachusetts) and I encourage you to push this legislation aggressively. If you would like to better understand the story, then please spend a few minutes at www.paulfarris.org to learn about one amazing person that a police pursuit stole from this world. 

I also ask you to seriously consider more stringent, statewide law enforcement policies controlling police pursuits. My son died as the result of a pursuit through the most densely populated city in New England at speeds exceeding 75 miles per hour - for a simple traffic offense - a misdemeanor. The driver of the SUV was not involved in a felony, had not robbed a store, had not fired a gun, or done anything else that was endangering lives. The State Trooper decided a high-speed pursuit was acceptable, even though the City of Somerville has strict no-pursuit policy because they recognize the danger a chase poses to their citizens. 

Finally I ask Committee members to ensure, for public safety purposes, that this measure cannot be used as an excuse to justify a chase or to justify a continued and higher-risk pursuit. Legislators need to encourage law enforcement to use other resources available to officers to find the fleeing driver. 

Throughout Massachusetts, cities and counties have different high speed pursuit standards, requirements and policies. More innocent victims will continue to be killed and maimed until the laws are significantly strengthened by limiting when and where pursuits are allowed. 

Your legislation is a tremendous beginning and I implore you to push it forward with great conviction and vigor. 

Jonathan Farris

_______________ 

An Act relative to motor vehicle police chases. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority 

of the same, as follows: 

SECTION 1. Chapter 268 of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding the 

following section:- 

Section 41. Whoever knowingly operates a motor vehicle on a street, road, alley, or 

highway in this state, to intentionally flee or attempt to elude a law enforcement officer 

after having received a signal from the officer to bring the vehicle to a stop shall be 

punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not less than 2 years AND a fine not to 

exceed $5,000.

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