Mission Statement

Voices Insisting on PursuitSAFETY is committed to:
1. Working for safer vehicular police pursuits (police chases and police response calls) to prevent unnecessary deaths of and injuries to innocent bystanders and police officers.
2. Helping injured victims and bereaved families who are impacted by the violent crashes caused by police chases and police response calls.

Vision Statement

PursuitSAFETY believes chases should only be conducted when there is no other way to apprehend a fleeing driver who poses an imminent threat to public safety, i.e., to prevent future injuries and deaths.

PursuitSAFETY believes police response calls need to be conducted with extreme caution to prevent deaths of and injures to innocent bystanders and officers.

Core Values

"The fleeing driver does not care about my family’s safety or your family’s safety, so the burden to protect the innocent, by necessity, falls on the police to keep the public they serve and themselves safe," Candy Priano, PursuitSAFETY's Executive Director.

PursuitSAFETY wants to prevent these tragedies from happening to others and supports the following:

  1. Legislation that requires officers to follow their pursuit and response call policies. This may surprise some people, but the United States does not require officers to follow their pursuit policy, so in some states, such as California, officers are not required to follow the policy they have actually adopted. There is no accountability because of our state and federal immunity laws. Law enforcement agencies should welcome accountability to the public they serve.
  2. Mandatory officer training, preferably once a year but no less than every two years.
  3. Policy testing. Many states don't provide any testing and do not even require officers to read their policy.
  4. An independent investigative team (comprised of officers from other agencies, victims' advocates and non-law enforcement professionals) will review police vehicular pursuits and police response calls ending in death or injury.
  5. Mandatory reporting of deaths and injuries resulting from vehicular police pursuits.

    For the innocent victims, the families left behind and the public:
  6. Provide a safe place for innocent victims and their families to turn to for the support they need.
  7. Increase the public's knowledge about this public safety issue through our educational programs, presentations, and public service announcements.

    Penalties    :
  8. Sponsor and support legislation that makes all acts of fleeing and eluding the police a felony with mandatory prison time. For public safety purposes, the act of fleeing and eluding cannot be used as an excuse to justify a chase or to justify a continued and higher-risk chase.
  9. Sponsor and support legislation to make the registered owner the presumed fleeing driver of a vehicle (such a presumption is rebuttable but the burden of proof shifts to the owner, who thereby becomes highly motivated to identify the family member or whomever else was driving the vehicle).

 

Goals

  1. Work to implement the above concepts;
  2. Be a resource for families of victims and victims of crashes caused by police chases and police response calls;
  3. Educate the public, potential high-risk offenders, police, and press about the inherent danger of vehicular police chases and police response calls;
  4. Conduct research;
  5. Provide a resource for law enforcement for the development and implementation of safe and responsible police chase and police response policies, procedures, practices and laws; and
  6. Sponsor programs and support pursuit polices that strike an appropriate balance between (a) apprehending fleeing drivers or responding to police response calls and (b) ensuring public safety.

PursuitSAFETY appreciates your support and participation.
Become a member by joining a great team!