PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh’s police chief is responding to exclusive 11 Investigates reporting about a memo that was critical of police chases.
Chief Investigator Rick Earle broke this story a couple of weeks ago.
Chief Jason Lando said he’s very concerned about what he uncovered.
He says it’s jeopardizing the safety of the public and his officers. Now, he says the department doesn’t have a no-chase policy, but officers are only allowed to pursue for the most serious crimes.
“A big part of our job is to catch people who break the law, but we have to do it in a responsible manner,” Lando said.
Two weeks ago, the chief issued a stern warning after an audit of police pursuits revealed officers chasing vehicles without justification, failing to activate emergency lights, deactivating in-car and body-worn cameras and intentionally striking another vehicle.
“Recently we saw some issues where some officers, well-intentioned...they want to catch bad guys, right, so I appreciate the fact that they want to be proactive, but we have to know we have to constantly balance that keeping the community safe with catching someone who broke the law,” Lando said.
Late last year, the driver of a vehicle stopped for tinted windows fled from Pittsburgh police and barreled into an intersection, hitting multiple vehicles and injuring at least nine people.
Sources tell 11 Investigates the officer began chasing the vehicle but then broke off.
Three victims injured in the crash have filed civil lawsuits accusing the city of failing to train officers on police pursuits.
The chief says officers are only allowed to chase vehicles for the most serious crimes.
“Someone does a shooting, commits a robbery, sexual assault; those are the types of things officers are permitted to pursue for. We don’t pursue for some of the lesser offenses,” Lando said.
Lando also expressed concern in that email that supervisors were attempting to justify some of the policy violations. He said all of this must stop now.
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