The Health Divide: The unequal and deadly toll of police chases warrants more coverage

We’ve all seen this one before: The police attempt to stop a driver suspected of a violent crime. 

The driver refuses to pull over, leading to a high-speed chase. During the pursuit, the driver runs red lights and puts dozens of lives at risk. The chase ends in a crash, tragically injuring or killing an innocent person. 

There is a widespread debate across the country about whether police should engage in high-speed chases. Supporters argue that police should pursue drivers who refuse to stop, while opponents claim these chases endanger innocent lives and should be banned. 

Although fatal police pursuits happen in every state, reporting has shown that African Americans and Latinos are killed at a disproportionately higher rate during these pursuits. This includes those being chased, passengers in the fleeing vehicle, and innocent bystanders caught in the chaos. 

An investigation last year by the San Francisco Chronicle found that from 2017 through 2022, these high-speed pursuits caused at least 3,336 deaths in the U.S., including at least 551 bystanders who also lost their lives. 

“(P)olice chases kill four times as many Black people per capita as white people, while Latinos die at a rate 50% higher than whites,” Chronicle reporters Jennifer Gollan, Susie Neilson and Janie Haseman wrote. 

Hassan Harris's family believes that their loved one would still be alive today if Milwaukee police had not initiated a high-speed chase with a suspect wanted for a non-fatal shooting on August 23.

When police spotted the car at 7:40 p.m., they attempted to stop it, but the driver refused. The chase ended nearly two miles away when the fleeing car collided with Harris’ vehicle.

Harris, 30, who is Black and the father of two, died at the scene. The chase began and ended on the city’s north side, which is predominantly African American.

Harris’ uncle Sherman Brown, who said he was against police chases even before he lost his relative, added, “Once (law enforcement) see that a person is willing to risk it, you've got to fall back,” he said. 

Police arrested a 17-year-old boy at the scene, another teen was taken to a nearby hospital with serious injuries, and a third teen was later arrested after fleeing. 

Harris is the fourth person to die in a Milwaukee chase over the past two months. 

Milwaukee police revised their chase policy in 2017, expanding it to allow officers to pursue vehicles involved in reckless driving and drug dealing, following a directive from the Fire and Police Commission in response to a rise in such behavior. The revision, which came after a period of more restrictive policies, led to a significant increase in police chases.

Former Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn, who implemented the chase policy during his time in office, told the local FOX affiliate that pursuing suspects risks too many innocent lives and that it might be time to reduce pursuits. “It’s not deterring offenders because reckless driving is still occurring, and it is not properly guiding officers on acceptable risks,” he said.

While opinions are sharply divided on whether police should pursue fleeing suspects, cities like Los Angeles and Orlando that have implemented stricter policies on when to chase have noticed a decline in chases, injuries, and fatalities. 

Remarkably, these measures have not led to an increase in crime, according to the Police Executive Research Forum.

In May, my wife and I found ourselves caught up in a high-speed chase while driving home after getting ice cream in Milwaukee.

Though we weren’t hit, the pursuit ended in a crash just in front of us.

The driver and passengers of the fleeing vehicle were all under 17 years old. The innocent woman they hit sustained an ankle injury, and her car was totaled.

The experience reminded me that high-speed police chases pose a serious public safety problem, one that results in nearly two deaths each day in the U.S. This happens despite many large cities spending millions of dollars on traffic calming measures to reduce reckless driving and help law enforcement catch fleeing vehicles more effectively.

For journalists, this is not only a story of innocent lives lost due to reckless driving. We also need to investigate our city’s policies on police chases and determine when these policies were last updated. And ask the follow-up question: Are police following their own policies? 

Original data analyses and reporting, like the “Fast and Fatal” investigation published by the San Francisco Chronicle, crystallize the public health toll such policing policies have on communities. 

“Deadly police pursuits are much more likely to occur in majority Black neighborhoods, raising questions about the consequences of aggressive policing in these areas, and how one of the most dangerous tactics in law enforcement is deployed in these places,” the Chronicle team wrote.

 

This kind of reporting can hold law enforcement and city leaders accountable for broken pledges to reduce such deaths. 

 

While journalists may not be able to directly reduce the number of crashes that result in injury or death, we can exert pressure on leaders and lawmakers by highlighting the collateral damage caused by these incidents. The impact on families and communities is far too devastating to ignore.