Last year, Milwaukee’s police department pursued more vehicles through the city’s streets than ever before, according to the Fire and Police Commission.
Police pursuits are among the most dangerous duties officers perform, and in recent months, several bystanders have been killed as a result. WUWM’s Jimmy Gutierrez spoke with Leon Todd, executive director of Milwaukee’s Fire and Police Commission, about when police are allowed to pursue and what we know about its effectiveness.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Jimmy Gutierrez: Since MPD declined to discuss its pursuit policy, can you break down what's in SOP 660, MPD’s pursuit policy? What does it say about local police, their ability to engage in vehicle pursuits, and when they can do so?
Leon Todd: Well, it says a lot. I wanna emphasize that it’s not saying that officers must pursue vehicles in these situations, but these are the situations when they are allowed to do so. They still retain their discretion within those reasons to enter into a pursuit.
So, for example, if the occupant has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a violent felony, such as an armed robbery or recklessly endangering safety—something of that nature—an officer would be justified or permitted to initiate a pursuit. Another example is when a vehicle is used or taken during the attempt or commission of a violent felony. Another one is if a vehicle or occupant presents a clear and immediate threat to the safety of others.
The final two reasons are if there is drug dealing approximately at the time of the initiation of the pursuit. I’ll stress, however, that this ground is limited to situations or incidents where it is a substantive drug investigation or a long-term investigation.
So this wouldn't be in the case of someone maybe seeing something that they perceived to be a drug deal interaction.
That's correct. It would have to be a substantive investigation or a long-term investigation. And then finally, one of the final grounds is if the necessity of immediate apprehension outweighs the level of danger created by the vehicle pursuit. Again, I want to stress that those are the situations when officers are allowed to initiate pursuits they're not required to.
And even when they do initiate a pursuit for one of those reasons, they have to continually monitor the situation and determine whether or not it is justified and appropriate to continue the pursuit. And they always have to exercise due regard and take that into account for the safety of the public and others.
It sounds like there is a lot of discretion regarding when to pursue vehicles and when not to. Has that policy changed over time? Looking at the stats, there appears to be a significant jump in pursuits around 2017-18, increasing from 369 to 940.
Yes. So in 2017, the FPC did direct the police department to update the policy, and that was in response to a large number of pursuit situations or fleeing situations that had steadily increased over time.
It was determined that the pursuit policy should be expanded to give officers more ability and more tools where they can engage in vehicle pursuits. It was decided that the policy would be amended to include situations that involve drug dealing... as well as situations involving reckless driving.
The Fire and Police Commission has been publishing yearly reports about vehicle pursuits and key findings. Your last major report came out in 2023—what did you learn from it?
Well, like you showed, it does indicate that there was a substantial increase in the number of pursuits in 2018 after the policy was changed. But I would also note that the number of non-pursuits also has gone down dramatically. So, I think the policy has worked as designed. I think that under the old policy it had become common knowledge that police would not pursue in certain situations and various people would take advantage of that.
That was the aim of the policy to allow police to pursue individuals so that they couldn't flee with impunity.
So the data shows that we have both more pursuits than ever before and more vehicles fleeing as well. Is the pursuit policy as it stands having the desired results? Are we seeing a drop in reckless driving and other crimes?
That's a complicated question. I think there's a lot of things that go into reckless driving. It's not just enforcement. It's things like education, design, traffic calming measures. Those are the three components that really need to be addressed in combination in order to combat reckless driving.
I think on the enforcement side of things, it is important that officers be able to pursue when appropriate and when safe to do so. But that has to obviously be balanced with the need to ensure public safety. Obviously, vehicle pursuits can be dangerous. They can result in accidents and injury. So we want pursuits when appropriate, when we're talking about situations involving violent felonies and other situations that present a clear danger to the public, which outweighs the potential danger that would be created by a pursuit.
The other thing I would note is, from the FPC's perspective, as you noted, we've done the vehicle pursuit report annually with some exceptions, and that report really looks at the data and gives us a bird's-eye view of the data and trends and things of that nature.
In 2024, we did something new. We wanted to take a little bit of a deeper look at how the practice is working on the ground. So we did a vehicle pursuit audit. So our auditors at the FPC took a random sample of vehicle pursuits. They reviewed the police reports, the body cam and squad cam videos for that to assess whether or not MPD, in practice, was complying with their policy.
We saw that in over 98% of cases that that were reviewed, the initiation of the vehicle pursuit was justified under SOP 660. There's a number of other findings in there as well. But, our auditors did a substantial review and made several recommendations, both for individual cases and on a policy-wide basis.
One of the significant recommendations that we made is that MPD should create a vehicle pursuit committee, similar to the use-of-force committee that they already have, which meets quarterly. The committee can help identify members for the early intervention program, policy reminders, remedial training and training examples that they can use in in-service and other trainings.
And my understanding is that MPD is receptive to those recommendations and are already working on implementing them.
In 2017-18, it sounds like the FPC had significant influence in recommending changes to the pursuit policy. Things have changed with the FPC and the passing of Act 12, which brought some foundational changes to the commission. What kind of power does the Fire and Police Commission have to shape this policy?
Quite a bit. Obviously, the commission no longer has the direct power to approve or change standard operating procedures. But like I just shared, we can conduct audits, review policies, and make recommendations—both through audits and policy recommendations.
And ultimately, it is the commission that hires the chief, reviews [their] performance, and evaluates the department's performance and operational effectiveness. The department does take our recommendations seriously.
So there may not be that direct power, but there is soft power, so to speak. And there is a very good relationship between the FPC board and FPC staff, on the one hand, and the Milwaukee Police Department on the other. Ultimately, we all want the same thing—we want public safety, and we want effective, professional, legal, and safe law enforcement in the city of Milwaukee.
Vehicle pursuits—police chases—have been called some of the most dangerous actions police take. Recently, there have been some heartbreaking deaths as a result of these pursuits.
The 60-year-old grandfather, Clerance Bibbins, was fatally hit by a car fleeing a police pursuit last November. His daughter spoke up and called for an end to MPD's pursuit policy. There's also Beverly Fair, the 70-year-old grandmother of 12. She was struck while traveling in her grandson's SUV. MPD didn't call this a pursuit by its definition, but the vehicle was being pursued by MPD.
Thinking of how MPD weighs the lives of residents against its SOPs, is it worth it?
I think that's a very good question. It is a balancing act that has to take place. There has to be the ability for law enforcement to enforce the law and pursue individuals when appropriate. And I think the people of Milwaukee also expect and demand the police department to enforce the law, to pursue people to the best of their ability when reasonable and appropriate. That ensures public safety.
At the same time, that is balanced against the need to not create or amplify a dangerous situation to an unacceptable degree. I think the standard operating procedure right now does a good job of balancing all those things.
So I believe that it is a difficult situation that has to be balanced, and I believe that the policy we have in place now does that very appropriately and to the best that can reasonably be expected.