(ThyBlackMan.com) One recent night I watched several LAPD cars blow through one of the busiest intersections in South L.A. with lights flashing and sirens going full blast. Some cars abruptly stopped. Others jerked quickly to the side of the road. Others almost collided with one of the police cars. The cars were likely involved in one of the hot pursuit car chases later reported.
Luckily there were no collisions or injuries at the intersection the LAPD cars flew through. Unfortunately, that has not been the case with other similar high speed LAPD car chases. The figures on them tell a deadly story of car crashes, injuries, near fatalities, and in some cases, fatalities.
The LAPD engages in more car chases than any other local police agency. Its chases have resulted in more than one thousand injuries to civilians since 2018. The majority of those injured were not the suspects being chased but innocent civilians. More than one quarter of LAPD pursuits have resulted in a crash. The majority of those injured are not the suspects being pursued but again third-party persons, either other motorists or pedestrians.
LAPD car chases have been costly in more ways than just causing bodily injuries to civilians. L.A. taxpayers have shelled out nearly one hundred million dollars to in legal settlements and bodily injury claims from the LAPD pursuits. That figure is almost certain to rise. Since the LAPD averages a staggering twenty-one pursuits a week. That not a year, but a week!
A disproportionate number of those pursuits are in South Los Angeles and the surrounding areas. That increases the likelihood that the civilians injured are Black and Hispanic motorists and pedestrians.
The LAPD policy manual makes clear that pursuits should not endanger third party individuals and should only be engaged in when there is serious threat by a fleeing suspect to public safety. Presumably, that means when there is a serious felony offense that may involve a firearm. However, there is little evidence that the sheer huge volume of pursuits rise to that standard.
The L.A. Police Commission has from time-to-time requested numbers, and figures, and other data from the LAPD on the pursuits. The aim is to determine what, when, and why these pursuits occur. The other aim should be to impose tough restrictions on what, when, and why the LAPD can engage in a pursuit.
The dubious frequency of these chases demand more than that. The Police Commission should make it a matter of urgency to closely examine LAPD car chases. It should then encode clear guidelines on when officers can car pursue. There are already clear guidelines that other departments use in determining when a police car chase is necessary. They must involve a suspected felon, almost always when there is suspicion of a firearm. They must not pose a dagger to civilians particularly in crowded much traveled city streets and thoroughfares.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Police Executive Research Forum have tackled this issue. They mandate police chases only in instances involving a violent felony or where a suspect poses a grave threat to public safety
There’s more. Noo more than two cars can be involved, supervisors have the authority to call off a chase, chases for minor traffic infractions or non-violent misdemeanors are strictly prohibited, and a mandatory yearly review of pursuit policies and training is required.
There’s technology. Drones, GPS tracking, helicopters, and on street cameras are just a few of the many tech tools that police departments have at hand to track, monitor, identify, and apprehend a fleeing suspect. Police do not have to go tearing up crowded city streets to apprehend a fleeing suspect. These tech weapons have rendered most high-speed chases at best unnecessary at worst, deadly.
Congress has also taken notes of the fearsome danger of high-speed police chases, California congresswoman Laura Friedman in April 2026, introduced the “Next Gen Road Safety Act.” This expands the COPS grant program to provide ramped up funding to acquire and utilize tech aids to eliminate and de-escalate high-speed pursuits. One of the tech tools can actually disable a vehicle in flight.
Finish story here; LAPD High Speed Chases Put Lives at Risk and Cost Taxpayers Millions.
