After Gavin Newsom started haranguing the Oakland PD to engage in more car chases of suspects, new Oakland Police Chief Floyd Mitchell agreed, and laid out his proposal for more car chases at higher speeds.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has been needling the City of Oakland to update its police pursuit policy to allow more car chases of criminal suspects. Now he’s got new Oakland Police Chief Floyd Mitchell backing him up, and pushing aggressively for this. KTVU reports that Mitchell spoke at a Thursday night town hall with the Oakland Police Commission, and laid out his proposal for more, higher-speed car chases of crime suspects.
Mitchell explained Thursday night how he hoped to raise the 50-mph speed limit that police vehicles can reach in chases, and allow police chases for burglaries, property crimes, and anyone fleeing from sideshows.
"These are proposed changes," Mitchell told the commission Thursday night, per KTVU. "And these are proposed changes without having the benefit to hear from all the stakeholders, all the community. And that's one of the things I think is important to make sure we give everyone the opportunity to go through the process and get that opportunity."
As it stands now, Oakland police can only engage in chases if they believe the suspect has engaged in a forcible violent crime, or if they have probable cause to believe that a the suspect is carrying a gun.
And under that policy, statistics KTVU cites show that between 2018 and 2023, Oakland police engaged in around 600 vehicle pursuits. 46% of those resulted in property damage (that seems a lot!). Meanwhile, 7% resulted in injuries, and 1% caused a death. The injured and killed were generally innocent bystanders, like the 2022 chase that killed a 28-year-old man who was in line at a taco truck when police were driving 100 MPH and did not have their headlights on at night.
For his part, Oakland Police Commission chair Ricardo Garcia-Acosta put out a statement saying “Research presented to the Commission clearly demonstrated that an increase in high-speed chases would lead to more injuries and fatalities among innocent bystanders in our city.”
Ultimately, though, the Oakland Police Commission does not have any authority over the chase policy, they can just provide feedback. So Chief Mitchell could just implement these changes unilaterally.
Image: OAKLAND, CA - DECEMBER 06: An Oakland Police patrol car sits in front of the Oakland Police headquarters on December 6, 2012 in Oakland, California. Oakland City officials have come to an agreement to forfeit broad power over the Oakland Police Department to a court-appointed director to avoid federal takeover. The new compliance director would have the power to seek approval from a judge to fire the police chief. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
