NYPD, quit the chase

To the editor:

Amanda Servedio, riding her bike in Long Island City, entered an intersection and was struck and killed by burglary suspects driving a Dodge Ram being chased by an NYPD van with its lights flashing. 

To the officers’ credit, they did stop the chase and try to render aid to the victim, but Servedio, 36, succumbed to her injuries. The NYPD insists that high speed chases are sometimes necessary.  The NYPD is wrong; in the crowded streets of NYC, they are never necessary or defensible when they endanger innocent pedestrians, bikers and other vehicles.  

Many chases are unsuccessful, but even if a police chase results in the apprehension of a suspected criminal fleeing the police, is it worth the price of a dead or seriously injured victim — whether caused by the suspect’s vehicle or the police vehicle? Of course not. Let’s apply hyperbole to make the point: Do 50 successful police chases that result in apprehending 50 criminals justify the death of one child crossing the street? No, and that is obvious.  

The rule that a supervisor must be called on the radio to green-light a chase/pursuit doesn’t work because the chatter on the police radio usually drowns out any clear communication with a supervisor once a chase begins.  

Every police pursuit should stop immediately as soon as the suspect begins to flee at a high speed. It’s far more important to ban police chases than it was to ban chokeholds by police officers. The numbers of injured and dead clearly tell the story.  

Michael J. Gorman

The writer is a retired NYPD lieutenant.