Apple Valley police are relaxing strict vehicle pursuit policies

Apple Valley police officers can now track cars linked to suspects in numerous crimes ranging from burglaries to sexual assaults after easing one of the metro area’s most restrictive vehicle pursuit policies.

The South Metro Department made the change after a “sharp increase” in the number of vehicles fleeing officers, according to a March 14 city memo.

“In 2020, we had some very restrictive guidelines in place in our pursuit policy for a variety of reasons,” Apple Valley Police Chief Nick Francis said. “If it was a deadly force incident or someone needed to be captured immediately … that was basically the only authority our department had to pursue.”

Written after the killing of George Floyd, this policy came at a time when the department was seeing an increase in the number of people fleeing police. The department wants to reconsider activities that are considered risky or dangerous to public safety, Francis said.

However, a few years later, those restrictions reduced liability for pursuits but “did not appear to have a positive impact on overall public safety,” he said, citing increased car thefts in particular.

According to Apple Valley police, the number of cases in which a driver fled from officers in the suburb has more than doubled since 2019, reaching a high of 37 in 2021.

The newly revised policy was also influenced by some incidents in which a suspect fled and later committed a violent crime, he said. In one case, Francis said, a vehicle stolen in Apple Valley that fled from police was linked to a shooting in Minneapolis later that night.

Francis said under the 2020 policy, residents sometimes called police for help, only for officers to observe a suspect driving away.

“The public says, ‘Hey, what’s up? We are calling on you as a victim of a crime for help. We expect the police to help us,’” he said.

Rules still apply to persecutions

Francis said the new policy still contains rules that officers must follow. For example, police can’t pursue a vehicle in a school zone or in oncoming traffic, he said.

Permission from a superior is required to prosecute suspects of certain crimes, such as theft or forgery. And officers must consider where the pursuit could lead because the city has one of the state’s busiest intersections at County Road 42 and Cedar Avenue – increasing the risk of dangerous accidents.

However, officers can initiate a pursuit themselves if the fleeing vehicle is linked to certain crimes, including homicide, aggravated assault, sexual assault and aggravated robbery.

Apple Valley’s guidelines are still more restrictive than those adopted in January by the Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) Board, which set more than a dozen model policies on topics ranging from the use of drones to racial profiling.

Mike Monsrud, deputy executive director of the POST board, said the revised policy provides more detail about officers’ responsibilities in a pursuit, with plenty of guidance about balancing risks with the seriousness of the alleged crime and the need for an immediate arrest.

The new policy’s approach was influenced by some high-profile police pursuits several years ago that ended in fatal crashes, Monsrud said.

Minnesota law enforcement agencies must adopt a policy that is identical or “substantially similar” to the POST policy, although the POST policy does not limit departments’ ability to track vehicles — those are agency-level decisions, Monsrud said.

“Some agencies have no restrictions and their officers can pursue any vehicle that flees from them,” Monsrud said. “(Others) are very restrictive in allowing officers to engage in a pursuit.”

What are other cities doing?

Minneapolis police last year crafted a new policy that allows officers to pursue fleeing suspects involved in certain firearms-related crimes, including pointing or firing a gun at someone. The revision was a response to increasing gun violence.

Francis described Apple Valley’s new policy as similar to Lakeville’s.

Lakeville Police Chief Brad Paulson said the city’s policy was written in early 2021, adding that the previous version left pursuit “entirely at the officer’s discretion.”

“We chose a somewhat middle-of-the-road approach,” Paulson said, adding that it relies on common sense and checks and balances.

Lakeville’s policy allows chases if there is a violent crime involved or if the chase has been authorized by a watch commander. Once a pursuit occurs, an officer can end it at any time, he said.

Officers “definitely see more cars starting than we are tracking,” he said.

“We always have to weigh the public risk factor and the last thing we want is for anyone to get hurt in these things,” he said.