Following a string of deaths caused by police pursuits, Milwaukee police are once again revising the department’s policy.
Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman introduced new restrictions on pursuits for reckless driving, set to go into effect on Feb. 6. It marks the first significant tightening of pursuit policy in more than a decade.
Pursuit policy has long been contentious in Milwaukee. Police chases were significantly curtailed in 2010 after four people died in pursuit-related crashes in the span of three months. But MPD later loosened the policy due to concerns over reckless driving, causing the number of pursuits to soar.
Here’s how the policy has changed over the years.
March 2010
Former Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn implements a policy change requiring police officers have probable cause that a violent felony has occurred in order to initiate a pursuit.
The policy change follows three incidents in which four people were killed by drivers fleeing Milwaukee police between Dec. 31, 2009 and March 1, 2010.
Previously, officers needed reasonable suspicion of a serious offense to engage in a chase.
November 2010
Flynn’s pursuit policy change resulted in fewer pursuits and injuries in 2010, according to the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission, the police department’s civilian oversight board.
Milwaukee police engaged in 68 pursuits in 2010, down from 167 in 2009, according to the commission’s annual report. They reported 12 fewer injuries from pursuits compared to the same six-month period in 2009.
2011-2012
Police chases fall to a 10-year low following Flynn’s tightening of pursuit policy. In 2011, the first full year following the policy change, MPD reports 51 pursuits.
Milwaukee police engage in 50 pursuits in 2012, the smallest number since 2002, according to an annual report.
2013-2014
The number of police pursuits ticks up from the 2012 low. Police initiated 81 chases in 2013 and 99 in 2014.
June 2015
Flynn changes MPD policy to allow pursuits of vehicles taken in the commission of a violent felony, regardless of whether officers believe the occupants were involved in the crime. The change is made to address an increase in carjackings.
July 2015
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that gangs are exploiting the city pursuit policy to escape arrest as they sell drugs from “rolling drug houses” in cars instead of from homes or on foot.
According to court documents, dealers from the gang known as Big Money Addicts heavily tint their car windows to obscure evidence that could justify a police pursuit.
Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn defends the pursuit policy, while mayoral candidate Ald. Bob Donovan calls for it to be rescinded.
“We expect criminals to act recklessly without regard for the lives of the innocent,” Flynn says. “We expect the police to put the lives of the innocent first.”
Donovan says the policy “has backfired,” putting residents’ lives at risk by letting dangerous suspects escape.
August 2015
Milwaukee police adopt a technology that can track fleeing vehicles without having to initiate a pursuit.
The technology, called StarChase, is mounted to a squad car and allows officers to fire GPS units onto fleeing vehicles.
2015-2016
Annual police pursuits more than double following the loosening of department policy to help combat carjackings.
Police engage in 263 pursuits in 2015, up from 99 the previous year. The police department logs 306 chases in 2016.
April 2017
In the first four months of 2017, eight Milwaukee residents are killed by hit-and-run drivers, prompting the Common Council to call for a change in MPD’s pursuit policy.
In a letter to the Fire and Police Commission, 13 Common Council members say Flynn’s policy allows reckless drivers and other criminals to get away and put residents at risk.
July 2017
The Fire and Police Commission orders Flynn to expand the department’s pursuit policy.
The commission demands Flynn create a “high-value” target list of vehicles police can now pursue. Vehicles on this list include those suspected to be used in rolling drug houses or who have fled from police at least two times.
The commission also orders Flynn to allow police to pursue vehicles if they have probable cause for “excessively reckless driving.”
“It isn’t like we’re giving officers license to chase people for minor vehicle infractions,” Commission Chairman Steven DeVougas said. “These are hopefully high-return pursuits where there are real threats to the community.”
Flynn calls the commission’s change “bad public policy” that would create “probably the least restrictive pursuit policy of any big city in the country.”
September 2017
The Fire and Police Commission unanimously approves the change in pursuit policy allowing officers to chase vehicles engaged in reckless driving and suspected drug dealing.
The new policy allows officers to initiate a pursuit if the “necessity of immediate apprehension outweighs the level of danger created by the vehicle pursuit.”
By the end of the year, police chases have jumped 21%, a Fire and Police Commission report finds.
In 2017, Milwaukee police engaged in 369 police pursuits, over half of which took place after the policy change went into effect in September.
June 2018
A 23-year-old Milwaukee police officer is killed in a squad car crash following the pursuit of a reckless driver. Officer Charles Irvine Jr. is the first Milwaukee police officer killed in the line of duty in 22 years.
The number of police pursuits in 2018, the first full year under the new pursuit policy, jumps nearly threefold to 940.
January 2019
Milwaukee police discontinue the use of StarChase technology.
An MPD spokesperson says the technology was retired because suspects had learned how to remove the tracking devices from their vehicles. GPS deployment was also hindered by poor weather conditions, the spokesperson says.
July 2019
Milwaukee Ald. Michael Murphy calls to revisit the pursuit policy in response to a spike in reckless driving. Annual car crash injuries related to speed in Milwaukee County increased 56% between 2010 and 2018.
Police Chief Alfonso Morales says he has no plans to change it.
2021-2022
Police pursuits top 1,000 per year for the first time in 2021 and again in 2022.
June 2023
A new state law strips the Fire and Police Commission of the power to change MPD policy. Now, changes to pursuit policy would need approval from the police chief or a two-thirds vote by the Common Council.
2024
MPD reports 957 police pursuits in 2024, the first time they have fallen below 1,000 since 2021.
August 2025
Between January and August 2025, five fatal police pursuits killed a total of six people. Only one person died following a chase in both 2023 and 2024, according to an annual Fire and Police Commission report.
A 17-year-old and 18-year-old, passengers in a fleeing vehicle, died when the driver crashed into another vehicle on Milwaukee’s east side April 30.
On July 14, a 32-year-old man fleeing police lost control of his vehicle and killed a pedestrian at a bus shelter. Later that month, a reckless driver trying to flee police hit and killed a 28-year-old man.
On Aug. 6, a 17-year-old died who was fleeing police died after his car crashed into a tree and caught fire. Two weeks later, a driver was struck and killed on West Center Street by a car being chased by police.
Sept. 16, 2025
The City of Milwaukee approves a $375,000 settlement to a bystander injured in a police pursuit in 2019.
Milwaukee resident James McNutt was severely injured when a vehicle fleeing police hit him at an intersection. The pursuit reached speeds around 110 miles per hour, and a police supervisor had told the pursuing officers to cancel the chase as it approached a busy intersection.
MPD determined after the crash that the pursuit violated department policy in at least two other ways.
Sept. 17, 2025
A mother and two sons are killed by a vehicle fleeing Milwaukee police engaged in a pursuit, bringing the number of people killed in pursuit-related crashes in 2025 up to nine.
Milwaukee resident Pler Moo, 50, and sons Moo Nay Taw, 21, and Kar Lah Kri Moo, 15, are struck and killed at the intersection of North 35th and West Vliet Street after police attempted a traffic stop on a reckless driver, according to MPD.
Oct. 2, 2025
Common Council members call for another review of police pursuit policy, asking police officials to explore ways to make chases safer or less common.
Of the nine people killed in pursuit-related crashes between January and October 2025, six were bystanders and two were passengers in vehicles fleeing police.
Still, council members fall short of calling for a significant overhaul of MPD’s pursuit policy. Ald. Scott Spiker says debating the policy is a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation.
“We’ve seen unnecessary tragedies on both sides of not pursuing and pursuing,” Common Council President José Pérez says.
Jan. 22, 2026
Under a policy change introduced by Police Chief Jeffrey Norman, officers can no longer initiate reckless driving pursuits based solely on speeding.
The new rule, effective Feb. 6, states that the driver must hit other vehicles or objects, fail to stop or slow at controlled intersections, or force other drivers to take “evasive action to avoid collision” before officers can pursue. Police must also check the availability of other officers and whether minor passengers are present.
Some commissioners say the change isn’t restrictive enough, calling into doubt whether it would have prevented any of the recent deaths.
Norman says he’s open to further input on the revised policy.
MPD also plans to reimplement StarChase equipment for the first time since 2019. The department hopes to deploy the technology in spring 2026.
David Clarey of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this article.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Here’s how Milwaukee Police Department pursuit policy has changed over time
Reporting by Francesca Pica, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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