ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION No. 106

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

INTRODUCED JUNE 17, 1996

 

 

By Assemblywoman FARRAGHER

 

 

An Assembly Resolution urging law enforcement agencies to implement and enforce New Jersey's Police Vehicular Pursuit Policy and urging the Attorney General to conduct an independent investigation of vehicular pursuits resulting in a fatality or serious injury.

 

Whereas, High-speed vehicular pursuits of suspected violators of the law by law enforcement officers pose a serious risk of danger to the officer, the suspect, motorists and pedestrians and can result in death and serious injury; and

Whereas, The Governor, the Attorney General, the Director of the Division of Criminal Justice, and the County Prosecutor's Association have issued to New Jersey's more than 500 law enforcement agencies guidelines and directives known as the New Jersey Law Enforcement Guidelines, which include New Jersey's Police Vehicular Pursuit Policy of 1993 (PVPP); and

Whereas, The PVPP, developed by a special task-force consisting of law enforcement officers, county prosecutors and Division of Criminal Justice personnel, attempted to balance the need for public safety with the duty of law enforcement officers to apprehend suspected violators of the law; and

Whereas, The PVPP guidelines and directives on vehicular pursuit are minimum statewide requirements that law enforcement agencies are required to adopt and pursuant to which each agency must develop its own operating procedures; and

Whereas, The PVPP requires law enforcement officers who have engaged in a vehicular pursuit to file an incident report containing, at a minimum, the following information: the date, time and location of the pursuit's initiation and termination; the highest speed attained; a description of the weather conditions, the road surface and the surrounding area at the time of pursuit; the reasons for initiating and terminating the pursuit; the accidents, injuries, fatalities and other consequences of the pursuit; whether the violator was apprehended; and the offenses for which the suspect was charged; and

Whereas, Each law enforcement agency must submit to the county prosecutor an annual summary report including the total number of pursuits by officers of the agency; the number resulting in an accident, injury, death, and arrest; a description of the persons injured or killed; the number of vehicles involved; and the number of suspects involved and arrested; and

Whereas, Each law enforcement agency must institute formal procedures to: review law enforcement officers' incident reports, assess compliance with the PVPP and the agency's operating procedures, determine its officer training and retraining needs, and identify possible improvements to vehicular pursuit policy; and

Whereas, A proper response to a recent rash of accidents occurring while a law enforcement officer was in a high-speed pursuit of a suspect is to call for law enforcement agencies to implement and enforce the PVPP guidelines and to request the Attorney General to conduct an independent investigation of any vehicular pursuit resulting in a death or serious injury; now, therefore,

 

    Be It Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

    1. This House urges law enforcement agencies to implement and enforce the Police Vehicular Pursuit Policy as set forth in the New Jersey Law Enforcement Guidelines.

 

    2. This House also urges the Attorney General to conduct an independent investigation of vehicular pursuits in which a fatality or serious injury results.

 

    3. A duly authorized copy of this resolution, signed by the Speaker of the General Assembly and attested by the Clerk thereof, shall be transmitted to the Governor of the State of New Jersey, the Attorney General of the State of New Jersey, the Director of the Division of Criminal Justice of the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety and the County Prosecutor's Association of New Jersey.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

    High-speed vehicular pursuits pose a serious risk of danger to the general public and can result in death or serious injury. However, these pursuits are sometimes necessary for law enforcement officers to carry out their duty to apprehend suspected violators of the law. Attempting to balance public safety with the needs of law enforcement, a special task-force consisting of law enforcement officers, county prosecutors and Division of Criminal Justice personnel developed the New Jersey Police Vehicular Pursuit Policy of 1993 (PVPP) to guide law enforcement officers engaging in, or considering engaging in, high-speed vehicular pursuits.

    The PVPP imposes reporting requirements on individual officers who have engaged in high-speed pursuits. It also requires law enforcement agencies to submit annual summary reports containing statistics on the vehicular pursuits in their jurisdictions and to implement procedures to formally review incident reports, assess the agency's training needs, determine the degree of compliance with the policy and the agency's operating procedures, and identify possible improvements to vehicular pursuit policy.

    This resolution urges law enforcement agencies to implement and enforce the PVPP. It also urges the Attorney General to conduct an independent investigation of any vehicular pursuit which results in death or serious injury.

 

 

                            

 

Urges enforcement of vehicular pursuit policy and an investigation by the Attorney General of pursuits resulting in death or serious injury.