August 31, 2020
On August 31, the Community Police Commission (CPC) submitted its vehicle pursuit policy recommendations to the City and Cleveland Division of Police. Community concerns regarding the danger vehicle pursuits pose to the public and the pursuit related death of a 13 year old girl in December of 2019 led the CPC to take a look at existing policy.
The CPC recognizes the CDP’s 2015 effort to update the vehicle pursuit policy and acknowledge that the current policy is generally in line with many national and local Ohio policies that existed during that time. In response to public concerns, the CPC concluded that five years is a reasonable amount of time to consider making several updates to enhance previous efforts in this area.
The CPC’s recommendations were informed by community feedback and existing research on best practices currently followed by other law enforcement agencies.
The CPC’s recommendations center on three key areas:
- Refining when an officer can use an authorized emergency vehicle to pursue a suspect and incorporating additional best practices for these pursuits;
- Defining training standards and limiting officers who are authorized to pursue to “sufficiently trained officers” only;
- Outlining criteria for reporting pursuit data to the public.