CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Less than two weeks after a mother and son died as the result of a police chase, new federal recommendations urge police to limit unnecessary pursuits, especially when motorcycles are involved.
Cynthia Nicole Lail and her 12-year-old son Michael were killed in early September after a Hickory police officer crashed into their minivan while chasing a motorcycle. According to investigators, the officer tried to stop the motorcycle for careless and reckless driving and failing to display a license plate. As WCNC Charlotte previously reported, Hickory's pursuit policy gives officers discretion about when to chase.
A Department of Justice report published by the Police Executive Research Forum the same month recommends that "pursuits should take place only when two very specific standards are met: 1) A violent crime has been committed and 2) the suspect poses an imminent threat to commit another violent crime." The report recommends policies that discourage or prohibit pursuits if the suspect is riding a motorcycle.
A 2022 WCNC Charlotte investigation found that at least 4,200 innocent bystanders alone have died during police pursuits over the last 40 years.
Following the fatal Hickory pursuit, the victims' family has committed to advocating for the elimination of police pursuits. While state lawmakers have long empowered individual departments to come up with their own pursuit policies, the newly published federal report urges police to better protect the public. It stops short of suggesting an outright ban on police chases, understanding they are sometimes necessary, but makes 65 recommendations that would help reduce the department's reliance on them and limit the overall risk.
Pursuit expert Geoff Alpert chaired the Pursuits Working Group, which included police officers, that was intimately involved in developing the new guidance. When WCNC Charlotte interviewed the University of South Carolina criminology and criminal justice professor in 2022, he leaned on his research to dispel the many myths about police chases.
"Good police work will find someone who flees from you," Alpert said at the time. "The person fleeing is at fault, but police are trained and are there to deal with people who aren't making good decisions, can't make good decisions and there's got to be an adult in the room. It's not the person fleeing. It's got to be the police officer."
The DOJ report builds on that work, but as WCNC Charlotte's investigation found, even more restrictive policies can only do so much. Ultimately, police officers are human.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers decided to pursue a driver for a traffic offense in early 2022, only for him to try to get away and crash into a car carrying Aaron Norward and his friend Brittany Webb. Brittany, a mother of two, died. Aaron, a new father, barely survived.
CMPD's policy prohibits officers from chasing someone for a traffic violation. The department suspended the two officers involved without pay for at least three weeks.
The report notes, "You can get a suspect another day, but you can't get a life back."
Contact Nate Morabito at nmorabito@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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