Harrisburg, Penn., (PRNewswire) -- Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller today announced that the number of deaths resulting from police pursuits declined in Pennsylvania in 2003.
This is in contrast to a recent report released April 7 by two researchers at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. The report showed that about 350 people die in the United States every year in car crashes resulting from police pursuits, and one-third of them are innocent bystanders, according to a
Law enforcement agencies in Pennsylvania reported that four people were killed as the result of crashes stemming from police pursuits last year as opposed to six deaths in 2002 and 11 in 2001.
The number of reported pursuit crashes increased from 1,945 in 2002 to 2,081 last year, Col. Miller said. Police reported 2,314 pursuits in 2001.
The statistics are contained in the 2003 Pennsylvania Police Pursuit Report compiled by State Police.
The report can be accessed through the State Police web site at http://www.psp.state.pa.us/pursuit.
Other information from the 2003 report:
-- All four of the individuals killed as the result of pursuit crashes last year were in the vehicles being pursued.
-- A total of 663 of the pursuits resulted in crashes; 251 pursuits resulted in crashes with injuries; 1,450 pursuits resulted in the apprehension of the fleeing motorist, and 566 pursuits were discontinued by the pursuing officer.
-- The most common reasons for police to initiate pursuits were traffic violations (1,009) and stolen or suspected stolen vehicles (349).
Under state law, every police department in the state must have a written emergency vehicle-response policy governing procedures under which an officer should initiate, continue and terminate a pursuit. By law, the policies are confidential.
The Vehicle Code defines a pursuit as an “attempt by a police officer operating a motor vehicle to apprehend one or more occupants of a vehicle when the driver of the vehicle is resisting the apprehension by maintaining or increasing his speed or by ignoring the police officer’s audible or visual signal to stop.”
Since 1996, the Vehicle Code has required State Police to compile pursuit reports submitted by police departments and provide an annual report to the Legislature.
Police agencies in Pennsylvania report their pursuit data through the Pennsylvania Police Pursuit Reporting System, which is an internet-based system maintained by the State Police Bureau of Research and Development.
The report is designed to provide statistical information to police departments to help them evaluate their pursuit policies.