SAN DIEGO — On Monday night, San Diego police officers were chasing a silver BMW for speeding, an infraction, and failing to yield, a misdemeanor.
The pursuit lasted less than a couple minutes before the driver collided with a different, responding police vehicle. An SDPD officer was killed, along with the driver of the BMW.
Current SDPD policy allows a supervisor to call off high-speed pursuits. They take into consideration public safety, the seriousness of the offense, and the risk to officers.
Police Chief Scott Wahl told reporters that the chase had been called off. But it was too late.
The fatal collision comes as the city's Commission on Police Practices" is recommending a more restrictive pursuit policy for SDPD. “The Commission recommends SDPD change (its policy) to make clear that vehicle pursuits may only be initiated for violent felonies,” reads a report presented last week by the Commission.
“You do not have to chase them. That is the most dangerous way of apprehending suspects,” said Esther Seoanes, a public safety advocate with pursuitsafety.org.
CBS 8 interviewed Seoanes in December 2023, after two young brothers were killed during an SDPD pursuit collision on a South Bay freeway.
“More than 90% of chases are performed for non-violent felony crimes. So, what Pursuit Safety advocates for is only chasing when there's a violent felony crime,” said Seoanes.
Seoanes' husband was an innocent bystander killed in a police pursuit in 2012.
“It needs to change, because innocent victims' lives are too valuable, too beautiful to be lost over somebody who was speeding,” said Seoanes.
The changes proposed for SDPD's pursuit policy are still in draft form, and the Commission on Police Practices can only make recommendations to SDPD. It remains to be seen whether the department will go along with the changes in the coming months.
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