State lawmakers and local agencies are starting to relax the rules on police vehicular pursuits due to concerns about crime, reports Stateline. Florida, Washington D.C., San Francisco and Washington state have eliminated restrictions on vehicular chases. But experts say that it's unlikely that more high-speed chases would lower crime. “It’s a very delicate balance,” said Rodney Bryant, the president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives and a former police chief. “One of the things that chiefs or policymakers have to take into consideration as it relates to [pursuits] is what harm happens if the person is not caught right then. … And there’s also the victim’s perspective.”
In Washington state, Republican Sen. Keith Wagoner blamed the 2021 restrictions on chases for a rise in auto theft. “The bad guys were waiting at the starting line and there was a starting gun, and auto theft just skyrocketed and crimes associated with that took off," he said. Florida’s new policy grants officers more discretion to initiate chases, removes guidelines about following posted speed limits and permits officers to drive on the wrong side of the road during a chase. In D.C., officers can pursue vehicles if the occupants pose an imminent threat to others. In San Francisco, officers can pursue vehicles for any felony or violent misdemeanor, including retail theft. Data on police chases, crashes and fatalities is limited and undercounted, making it difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of these revised policies, or whether the initial policies were flawed to begin with. There are also no national standards or guidelines for when police chases are allowed, according to Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum.