NYPD vehicle pursuits have dropped by two-thirds in the two weeks since Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced a policy to restrict their use, she said yesterday.
The revised policy, announced Jan. 15 but not set to be fully implemented until Saturday, limits pursuits to cases of suspected felonies or violent misdemeanors. Traffic violations are no longer grounds for officers to pursue fleeing vehicles.
The reversal followed reporting by THE CITY that found vehicle pursuits were connected to more than a crash per day in 2024, and that deaths and injuries had mounted since a more aggressive policy of chasing vehicles was instituted in late 2022.
“The advanced tools of modern day policing make it possible to apprehend criminals more safely and effectively than ever before,” Tisch said at her State of the NYPD speech in midtown Manhattan Thursday, in justifying the policy change.
Mayor Eric Adams had been supportive of the more aggressive tactics, telling reporters that he trusted police supervisors to make the right call on when to pursue fleeing vehicles.
Tisch also announced a new hyper-local approach to police deployment that focuses on smaller “zones” within precincts — such as a recent initiative targeting crime-rich stretches of Roosevelt Ave in Queens — and an overhaul to the department’s approach to qualityof life enforcement.
Quality of life enforcement was the primary focus of the Community Response Team, run by then Chief of Patrol John Chell and Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry, which has earned a reputation of being both overly aggressive and secretive.
“For too long, we asked our cops to correct these conditions without sufficient direction. No more,” said Tisch, who didn’t mention the Community Response Team by name and who in December promoted Chell to chief of department.
Chell had been the main driver behind the NYPD’s aggressive approach to vehicle pursuits.
Tisch said in the coming months she’ll establish a Quality of Life Division headed by a new chief, with officers in precincts assigned to so-called “Q-teams” that respond specifically to qualify of life complaints from the public. She also vowed to restore the department’s headcount to 35,000 uniformed officers.
The police department’s press office didn’t respond when asked whether the quality of life enforcement overhaul directly impacts the Community Response Team.
The new commissioner, Adams’ fourth in three years, was appointed in November, two months after the resignation of NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban in the days after the FBI seized his cell phone as part of an investigation.
Caban has not been accused of wrongdoing.
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