Report: St. Paul police chases have more injuries

A newspaper analysis of seven years of Minnesota police chase data found St. Paul police pursuits have led to injuries or fatalities three times more often than police chases in Minneapolis.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reported Sunday that police chases rarely end in death or injury to bystanders in Minnesota. A total of 86 people, or 7 percent of those injured or killed in chases, were bystanders.

When it comes to all injuries or fatalities - not just those to bystanders - 13 percent of chases ended with an injury or fatality statewide. That number was 18 percent in St. Paul and 6 percent in Minneapolis.

St. Paul Police Chief Thomas Smith said he can't explain the difference.

"Each chase is so unique," he said. "What were the road conditions like? What was the actual incident itself? We review each case and take a look at our policy.

"There always has to be a balance between enforcing traffic laws and apprehending serious criminals and safety during a pursuit. I feel very confident that we have great systems in place to monitor those type of activities."

The Minnesota Court of Appeals recently said St. Paul wasn't liable in one crash, which injured a 21-year-old woman who had to have her leg amputated. Mary Plaster was hit in 2008 when a drug dealer fleeing St. Paul police slammed into a car that hit her.

In that appellate decision, Judge Heidi Schellhas, writing for the majority, said the judges were concerned about part of St. Paul's pursuit policy - which allows officers to chase a drug suspect whose identity is known and who could be found later.

St. Paul's policy says officers can do that only if "a serious felony or hazardous driving behavior is involved" but it doesn't define "serious felony."

Geoffrey Alpert, a University of South Carolina criminology professor, said pursuits should look at the need to immediately apprehend a suspect.

"My line in the sand is a violent crime," he said. "Otherwise, it's not worth the risk to the officer, the suspect and the public."

Alpert said he does not consider a drug offense to be a violent crime.

Smith said drug offenders can be "very violent individuals" and often carry guns. The man in Plaster's case was a gang member and police were told he might have a gun.

The policy in Minneapolis is more specific. It says officers shouldn't chase a suspect who can be arrested later unless the crime is for homicide, first- or second-degree assault, aggravated robbery, sexual assault involving the use or threatened use of a dangerous weapon, or kidnapping.

Minneapolis police Sgt. Scott Olson said when he came to the department in 1993, the attitude was "chase them until they crash." Now, the policy is more restrictive, he said.

The St. Paul policy says "an officer must consider if the pursuit itself would create a more hazardous condition than if no pursuit occurred." That involves considering 18 factors, including the nature of the crime, the density of traffic and weather conditions.

"We have to weigh the balance - if we don't pursue this individual ... what happens?" Smith said. "We have to balance what we do every single day, and that's very difficult to do."

Smith, who became chief last summer, initiated a review of the department's pursuit policy. He said minor changes will be made soon, but he wouldn't discuss them until they are finalized.

In Plaster's case, her attorneys argued police didn't need to chase Wendell Raymone Jones because it was not an emergency or crime in progress. The chase started after an informant set up a deal with Jones.

But the city argued the first-degree drug offense that Jones was accused of was a serious felony. The appeals court agreed, affirming a lower-court ruling, and found the officers were immune from liability.

Plaster's attorney has asked the state Supreme Court to review the case.

St. Paul City Attorney Sara Grewing said, "While the circumstances surrounding this case are incredibly tragic, we believe the Court of Appeals got it right and followed the precedent of current law."

Dennis Kenney, a criminal justice professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York who has written about police pursuits, said most people who flee police do so for minor reasons.

"But once they made the decision to run, they were in for a penny, in for a pound. They were willing to do pretty much anything and take pretty much any risk to get away," he said.

So, if police know who a suspect is, "pushing them pretty much increases the risk to everyone," Kenney said. "The better thing is to back off and get them in a more controlled environment."

The number of police pursuits in Minnesota has decreased by 48 percent in seven years - from 1,324 to 687.

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Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)