Aurora allows police to pursue stolen-car suspects despite studies exposing danger

AURORA | Contradicting decades of national research, Aurora’s police chief has eased restrictions on when officers can chase criminal suspects, allowing for car pursuits linked to stolen vehicles and drunken-driving suspects.

“Over the past several years, the Aurora Police Department has not engaged in pursuits of stolen vehicles, despite auto theft being a felony offense,” Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said in a statement last week. “This has created a reality where offenders believe they can victimize our community with no consequence, simply fleeing from law enforcement to avoid accountability.”

Aurora police have for years allowed officers to pursue suspects who have committed or are committing a felony and considered a serious risk to public safety if they are not immediately apprehended.  Police policy has also allowed officers to pursue a suspect committing a crime involving a firearm who the officer believes poses a serious threat to the public.  

Allowing police to chase suspects solely for stealing vehicles or driving under the influence were essentially the only changes to the policy, according to Aurora police spokesperson Sydney Edwards. 

Fatalities, injuries and property damages resulting from police pursuits have become increasingly controversial over the last two decades, with numerous vetted studies warning against the dangers and costs of police pursuits.

Police departments renewed pushes for relaxing pursuit policies when crime spiked in Colorado, and across the nation, from 2020 to 2022. 

Chamberlain said that despite documented reduction in car thefts in Aurora and across the metro area, he hears from residents and community leaders that people feel unsafe.

“As the chief of police, my primary responsibility is ensuring the safety of the Aurora community while upholding the rights of residents not to be victimized by crime,” Chamberlain said in the statement.

Most national police organizations and public safety advocates cite numerous studies revealing that police pursuits are dangerous for police, suspects and bystanders, while showing little or no benefit in impacting crime rates. 

“There are ways to incentivize people to follow the law, apart from engaging in a dangerous police chase that is putting the lives of officers and bystanders at risk, and also putting the lives of the driver and passenger at risk who don’t deserve the death penalty for fleeing because of a stolen vehicle,” said Josh Parker, deputy director of policy for Policing Project.

A Federal Bureau of Investigation published a landmark report in 2010, saying that during police chases, 30% of suspects crashed, 30% stopped, and 25% outran the police. The report also said that the people who fled were usually accused of nonviolent crimes, with 32% driving a stolen car, 27% having a suspended driver’s license, 27% wanting to avoid arrest, and 21% driving under the influence.

Critics of permitting police chases say the dangers are substantial.

In an Aurora carjacking police pursuit in 2024, a 24-year-old bystander died from injuries while sitting in his parked car. The suspect was being chased by police in a northwest Aurora neighborhood, hit a speedbump, lost control and crashed into multiple parked vehicles, including the bystander’s vehicle.  

Chamberlain said officers will consider the risks and try to avert injuries to suspects, bystanders and even themselves. 

“This agency remains committed to prioritizing public safety in every decision we make,” Chamberlain said in the statement. “Pursuits will be conducted in a manner that weighs the risk to the community against the necessity of apprehending criminals who threaten our residents. Aurora is not a place where offenders can operate without fear of consequence.” 

Los Angeles Police Department has a similar pursuit policy to the one Chamberlain spelled out last week in his statement. The LA chief of police published an analysis in 2023 showing that 25% of their pursuits ended in a collision, with the majority injuring a bystander.

One major study showed that relaxing the chase policy and making public that police would pursue would-be thieves had the opposite of the intended effect. The City of Milwaukee produced a comprehensive report on its police pursuits in 2022 after easing up on police pursuit restrictions multiple times over the years, which showed that the more police pursuits they allowed, the more the apprehension rate declined. 

“In 2010, 62 of the 68 pursuits resulted in 91% apprehension. In 2019, 419 of the 879 pursuits resulted in 48% apprehension. After remaining relatively consistent for the three years between 2015 and 2017, the apprehension rate rose in 2018 and 2019, falling back to 38% in 2022,” according to the report.

In 2022, the Aurora Police Department did pursue a suspected stolen vehicle, which involved the driver, Anthony Edwards, 31, who drew a gun and pointed it at officers. Officers shot at him, and ultimately, Edwards shot himself in the head, with investigators ruling his death a suicide. Another suspect, in 2023, shot himself after being suspected of driving a stolen vehicle in Denver. He was chased into Aurora and back into Denver, where both departments “immobilized” him, and he barricaded himself in the car and shot himself. 

Parker said that although officers are in the best place to weigh the options of possible dangers to the public in a pursuit, they usually choose wrong. He also said that just because an officer works to be safe doesn’t mean the suspect is. If they are already driving recklessly, they will continue to drive recklessly while being pursued. 

There is also no evidence that more restrictive pursuit policies are linked to higher criminal activity, Parker said, which was found in a 2021 study conducted by the Policing Project.

“90% of pursuits are initiated because of traffic violations,” according to Vehicular Pursuits: A Guide for Law Enforcement Executives on Managing the Associated Risks by the Police Executive Research Forum.

The California Highway Patrol’s report on 2020 police pursuits found most charges upon apprehension were for stolen vehicles, driving under the influence, resisting arrest and suspended or unlicensed driving.

A comprehensive report was published in 2023 was created after Congress directed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in partnership with police jurisdictions, to conduct a study that would lead to the development of accurate reporting and analyses of crashes that involve police pursuits.

The report urges police departments to conduct pursuits only for violent crimes and in situations of imminent danger. The report, like others, specifies that vehicle theft and drunken-driving suspects should not prompt a police pursuit. 

The report also provides departments with a multitude of alternative approaches they can use. 

One example of an alternative solution listed in the report is tracking a stolen vehicle while it’s on the road, and when it reaches an intersection, having two unmarked police cars pull in front of the vehicle in the middle of the intersection (blocking traffic) and having an officer pull up behind and put a tire deflator in front of the back wheels. 

Tagging and tracking devices and drones were other solutions listed. 

The Aurora Police Department did not detail how they will gauge safety protocols for police pursuits. 

“Deciding whether an officer initiates a chase or not is at the officer’s discretion. If they decide the situation warrants a pursuit, they will let a supervisor know, and from there, the supervisor will oversee the pursuit as it’s happening,” Edwards said.

Chamberlain also stressed the importance of putting the safety of the community first. Having a supervisor assess the situation with the officer in pursuit is one of the recommendations the study suggests to continuously evaluate safety threats while engaging in a police pursuit. 

Chamberlain said the change in policy is meant to address what he perceives to be people behaving as if there were no consequences to criminal behavior.

“This is unacceptable,” Chamberlain said in the statement. “Public safety demands a balanced approach, one that allows officers to exercise discretion in holding offenders accountable while always considering the risks associated with vehicle pursuits. “This broader policy does not mean that officers engage in reckless chases but rather a measured and responsible approach to stopping those who exploit gaps in enforcement.”