San Diego oversight board calling for big changes over police pursuit policy

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — New data from a citizen oversight board is calling for major changes at the San Diego Police Department, particularly regarding the department’s vehicle pursuit policy.

With the call for changes comes powerful testimony from a family who lost their two sons in December after a police chase ended in a fatal hit-and-run.

“It is not worth the loss that we accept,” said an advocate of the family affected by the deadly pursuit that killed two children in Mountain View. The family of 8-year-old Malakai and 4-year-old Mason is now challenging the current police policy.

“This shows a lack of respect and recklessness, not caring about these communities,” an advocate stated. Fighting tears, the family stood before the Commission on Police Practices on Wednesday.

Their mother was seen wearing a brace. She and her children were in the car that was hit by a driver going over 100 mph while trying to evade police.

“This family is grieving; there are families that stand alongside them, we grieve for all of them and we want to get justice for everyone,” said Francine Maxwell, a resident of Encanto.

The deadly end of the pursuit has led to a new proposal limiting car chases to incidents involving violent felonies. Data from 2019 to this year shows SDPD conducted over 1,000 pursuits, over 60% of which were due to an infraction.

Out of all those police pursuits, 38% involved Hispanic individuals, 22% were Black, 16% were White, and nearly 5% were Asian.

“The data was not surprising or alarming because we’ve had these reports before,” Maxwell added.

In a statement, the San Diego Police Officers Association said:

“The SDPD Pursuit Policy in its current form is a best practice on limiting, supervising, and apprehending suspects during a vehicle pursuit. Other cities have tried policies such as the one being proposed by the CPP and they have failed. Most recently San Francisco, with a less restrictive policy than what is being suggested by the CPP, has moved at the will of the voters to allow police officers more leeway in which offenders they pursue. This was a direct result of failed pro criminal policies the voters are rejecting across California due to rising crime. The CPP’s position is radical and unacceptable to the rule of law.”

San Diego Police Officers Association

The 15-page document outlines current SDPD pursuit practices. The department says the guidelines work to maximize the effectiveness of pursuits while protecting the public and officers.

“No one implemented recommendations, they haven’t changed for a while,” Maxwell said.

Exiting the meeting on Wednesday, the commission left a grieving family with this message: “We are so sorry again for your loss and again we will continue to work on this. So thank you for joining us and I’m so sorry.”

The commission is also working to ramp up supervisory oversight, create a vehicle pursuit review board, and robust training and review processes. The plan is to take their recommendations up with the new police chief, who then has 30 days to respond accordingly.

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