Last year there were nearly 1,000 police vehicle pursuits in Milwaukee. That compares to just 50 police chases in 2012.
The number of pursuits has fluctuated widely in the last couple of decades, due to changes in policy. Some people have been pushing for a more restrictive policy, arguing that more pursuits allow for a greater chance of injuries or deaths.
At recent local government meetings, residents and city officials have held hours-long discussions about the Milwaukee Police Department's vehicle pursuit policy.
Tiffany Stark weighed in at a meeting in April, calling for more restrictive rules.
"It’s been a long process," Stark said during public comment. "I just want this to happen. I don’t want no one else to have to go through what we’ve had to go through."
Stark’s former partner Anthony Higgins was seriously injured in 2024, when a driver fleeing Milwaukee police crashed into Higgins’ car. Higgins died from his injuries last fall.
Nine people in Milwaukee died in police pursuit-related crashes last year. In 2024, there was one pursuit-related death.
Fire and Police Commission Vice Chair, Bree Spencer, also spoke in favor of changing the policy at a Public Health & Safety Committee meeting this month.
"The Milwaukee police pursuit policy is dangerous, and it’s dangerous because it’s too permissive," Spencer said.
Under the current standard operating procedure, or SOP, Milwaukee police can pursue drivers who flee recklessly after an attempted traffic stop. Milwaukee Alderwoman Sharlen Moore has proposed an SOP that would ban officers from pursuing fleeing drivers unless there’s a qualifying reason to pursue, like a violent felony.
If officers are already engaged in a pursuit for reckless driving, the modified SOP would require them to end the chase if the pursuit poses a danger to the public.
MPD opposes pursuit policy changes
At the June 11 meeting, MPD Chief of Staff Heather Hough said the department has carefully considered the proposed modifications, "and came to the conclusion that at this time the police department did not feel it wanted to make additional changes to the pursuit policy."
Hough added that before Common Council members consider adopting changes, the department would want time to measure the effectiveness of using technology like drones and the GPS tracker StarChase, during vehicle pursuits.
MPD Assistant Chief Craig Sarnow also spoke against the Council adopting the changes. Sarnow argues that a revised policy would "erode confidence in law enforcement’s ability to protect neighborhoods and enforce order on the roads."
"This change creates an unintended incentive for reckless drivers to flee," said Sarnow.
Sarnow defends officers’ use of restraint during vehicle pursuits. He said that out of last year’s 970 pursuits, officers chose to end the chase in 270 of them.
A U.S. Department of Justice report from 2023 seems to support critics of the current policy. The report examines how to manage the risks of vehicle pursuits. It cites MPD as a “real-world” example of how less restrictive policies lead to more chases, and result in more injuries and deaths.
In the report, the Police Executive Research Forum references previous revisions to MPD’s policy that allowed pursuits for reckless driving and vehicle-based drug dealing. Those changes resulted in a 200% increase to pursuit-related injuries from 2017 to 2018.
Vehicle pursuits between those years increased from 369 to 940, according to the 2025 City of Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission Vehicle Pursuit Report.
FPC Vice Chair Spencer says drastic changes to the policy, like under former police chief Edward Flynn, are unsustainable.
"We had a former chief who changed to kind of the national standard, but super fast," she said. "I suspect part of it was he didn't operationalize it very well and help bring people along to understand what he was doing."
Earlier this year, the city’s Fire and Police Commission urged the Milwaukee Police Department to revise the pursuit policy SOP to reduce police chases. The MPD chose not to adopt the revisions. Alderwoman Moore put forth a proposal that Common Council members mandate the change. Her effort was rejected by the Public Safety & Health Committee, to allow committee members and the City Attorney’s Office more time to review the proposal.
Moore is expected to push for the full Council to adopt the more restrictive rules at the Council meeting June 23.
