(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Battered by rampant crime, mass shootings, soaring murder rates and drug dealing, Chicago Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her administration’s police department brass have decided to no longer allow police officers to chase people on foot if they flee.
The department’s new policy, announced this week, closely resembles a draft policy put in place after two separate pursuits in 2021 that ended with officers fatally shooting a 13-year-old boy and a 22-year-old man, NBC News reported.
The rule is the first permanent one addressing when officers can and cannot engage in activities that may endanger themselves, suspects and civilians.
“The safety of our community members and our officers remain at the core of this new foot pursuit policy,” Superintendent David Brown said in a statement announcing the policy, which will be implemented by the end of the summer.
“We collaborated internally with our officers and externally with our residents to develop a policy we all have a stake in.”
Under the new policy, officers may chase perps only if they believe a person is in the process of committing or about to commit a felony, a Class A misdemeanor (such as domestic battery) or a serious traffic offense.
The days of officers chasing people who attempt to avoid them, however, are done. Officers can no longer chase people on foot if they suspect them of minor offenses such as parking violations, driving on suspended licenses or drinking alcohol in public.
“People may avoid contact with a member [of law enforcement] for many reasons other than involvement in criminal activity,” the policy states.
After the shootings last year, Lightfoot demanded the department create a policy to address this issue. The notoriously leftist mayor typically does not pay attention to the Chicago PD, ignoring her city’s rising crime rate and taking no meaningful action to combat it.
Instead of addressing increasing crime, Lightfoot has been shilling for “abortion rights” and claiming that the huge number of carjackings is because of “unloved youth.”
Lightfoot is also very unpopular with local law enforcement, with the sheriff rejecting her calls for backup after vaccination mandates last year depleted the police department of officers.
