Recent police chases raise questions about pursuit policies

Two police chases covering four counties on Thursday are raising questions about when police should pursue suspects.

The questions are particularly frustrating because it’s not easy to learn if officers followed their department's pursuit policies: state law prevents us from ever finding out.

The Thursday police chase that ended in Allegheny Township, after covering 70 miles and three counties, started when an off-duty cop spotted Andrew Libitzer, who had several warrants out for his arrest, mostly for traffic violations and trespassing.

That was enough to launch a lengthy pursuit.

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What we don't know is if officers followed their police pursuit policy, because that police is not public record.

“It should all be public; there's no reason for it not to be public,” said David Harris, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh. “It doesn't harm anybody, it doesn't endanger police officers whatsoever."

Harris says the public deserves to know if officers are following policies, especially because chases can impact so many people.

"Show me an example, one example, where (a suspect) who has been in a police pursuit or use-of-force incident has actually read and knows the police policy and uses it to their advantage," he said.

Channel 11 was curious how cities that are similar to Pittsburgh do things, so we did a simple Google search, and in a matter of seconds we found the policies of cities like Detroit, Baltimore and Cleveland.

Although the policy's not public, Pittsburgh police did announce two years ago they only pursue violent felons. Channel 11 sources tell us that's still in place today.

Allegheny County District Attorney Steve Zappala also released his own guidelines for departments, saying they should only pursue suspects with serious felonies with few exceptions.

Every police department is required to have a police pursuit policy, but they can vary. The one constant in Pennsylvania is that they can't be released publicly.

Cox Media Group