1 in 5 killed in Arizona police chases are bystanders

More than one in five people killed in Arizona police pursuits over the last three decades were innocent bystanders, according to federal data compiled and analyzed by USA Today.

Arizona had 354 people killed in police chases between 1979 and 2013, about 3 percent of the 11,506 deaths nationally. Maricopa County had the most fatalities with 124, Pima County was second with 99 and Pinal County was third with 34.

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Pedestrians and people in bystander vehicles accounted for about 22 percent of deaths in Arizona, about a point higher than the national percentage, data show. Passengers in fleeing vehicles accounted for about 34 percent of those deaths, about 12 points higher than the national percentage.

One Arizona police officer died in a 1987 chase in Mohave County. The numbers do not include the four television journalists who died in 2007 when their two news helicopters collided just north of downtown Phoenix while covering a police chase.

NATIONAL INVESTIGATION: High-speed police chases have killed thousands of innocent bystanders

Many police departments still allow officers to make on-the-spot judgments about whether to chase based on their perception of a driver’s danger to the public. Officers continue to violate pursuit policies concerning when to avoid or stop a chase, police records show. And federally funded high-tech systems that would prevent chases, such as vehicle tracking devices, are undeveloped or rarely used because of high costs.

Whether police choose to pursue a suspect can lead to financial consequences for taxpayers.

The family of 24-year-old Alexander Sayed Ahmad sued the Chandler Police Department, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and the Arizona Department of Public Safety after Ahmad was killed in December 2007 by suspected bank robber Richard Schwartz.

Authorities had called off an initial high-speed chase through the Southeast Valley because Schwartz was driving erratically and not stopping for red lights. After driving at normal speeds through Chandler, officers resumed pursuit of Schwartz north on Loop 101.

Schwartz, 25, exited the freeway and drove across the center line on McKellips Road just east of Loop 101. He collided head-on with Ahmad, killing them both.

In 2012, Chandler paid out $99,999 to Ahmad’s family as part of a settlement.

The Justice Department called pursuits “the most dangerous of all ordinary police activities” in 1990 and urged police departments to adopt policies listing exactly when officers can and cannot pursue someone.

“Far more police vehicle chases occur each year than police shootings,” the department said.

The Phoenix Police Department’s current policy on pursuits was developed about 15 years ago and is reflective of an officer’s primary responsibility of protecting life and property, according to Sgt. Vince Lewis, a department spokesman.

Data show that 57 people died in police chases that occurred in Phoenix in 1979-2013. Roughly two out of five people killed in Phoenix during police chases were pedestrians or in bystander vehicles, but that doesn’t mean Phoenix police were involved in the pursuit because federal statistics do not identify the agency.

Though police are forced to make “split-second” decisions about whether or not to pursue a fleeing suspect, Phoenix officers have a “clear understanding” of when to give chase, Lewis said.

“The decision to pursue has to do with what (police) know about the person who’s fleeing,” Lewis said. “We pursue violent felons.”

But before giving chase, Phoenix officers also weigh things such as the area, the time of day, driving conditions and what crime the person they’re following is suspected of committing, Lewis said. The department has safety nets built into its process, he said, because a sergeant or lieutenant has authority to call off the pursuit.

“You can tell in some cases, if somebody takes off, it’s definitely not going to be worth pursuing them,” Lewis said. “If this is a known suspect and there is likelihood we can catch them at another location, that’s the safer way to go about contacting them.”

During a chase, Phoenix police adjust their strategy according to the suspect’s actions, Lewis said. The number of vehicles allowed in a pursuit is limited, and if a suspect begins driving erratically or making dangerous decisions, officers can pull back, turn the pursuit over to a helicopter or use stop sticks to disable the fleeing vehicle.

“We’re not going to sacrifice our safety, your safety and the safety of the community,” Lewis said.

Mesa has the Valley’s second largest police department behind Phoenix. Data show that six out of the 14 fatalities connected to police pursuits in Mesa during the 34-year period were innocent bystanders.

Detective Steve Berry, a Mesa police spokesman, said his department’s policy discourages pursuits. He said helicopters are used to chase fleeing suspects, eliminating the risk of police cars speeding after them.

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But he said one of the department’s three helicopters is not always available. Police generally fly during the morning commute hours and in the evenings, but are not airborne 24 hours per day.

One such instance occurred during the early morning slaying of a convenience store clerk killed over a pack of cigarettes in January. The helicopter unit was available to help, but the copter was not airborne at the time, delaying its availability to chase a suspect.

Police gave chase and eventually, a DPS officer performed a pit maneuver, where he clipped the end of the suspect’s car, causing it to spin out of control.

For police to begin a chase, “it has to be a violent felony. It poses an immediate threat to public safety if you don’t chase them,” Berry said.

“If we let (a felony suspect) get away, there is a real chance that someone else will be injured or killed,” he said.

Like Phoenix, Mesa police officers weigh such factors as the time of day, the level of traffic, whether they know the suspect’s identity, whether they believe they could arrest the suspect at another location without giving chase and whether there is an inordinate threat to innocent people’s lives.

“We hire officers and we train officers to think and make good decisions,” Berry said. “The officer can terminate a pursuit if they think it’s not safe.”

Nationally, the number of chase-related deaths in 2013 was higher than the number in 1990: 322, compared with 317, according to records of the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which analyzes fatal motor-vehicle crashes.

Pedestrians and people in bystander vehicles accounted for the 39 percent of the chase-related fatalities from 1979-2013 in Maricopa County, data show. Overall, the county averaged about four fatalities connected to police pursuits annually. The deadliest years were 2000 and 2007 with nine fatalities each that resulted from pursuits. There were nochase-related deaths in 2013 after six in 2012.

About 38 percent of chase fatalities in Arizona occurred in the state’s four counties that border Mexico: Yuma, Pima, Santa Cruz and Cochise.

USA TODAY reporter Thomas Frank and Republic reporter Amy B Wang contributed to this story.