PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Lawyers for the City of Philadelphia settled a $2.9 million lawsuit last month with the family of two people who were struck by a dirt bike during a 2017 police pursuit.
Philly police were chasing the driver of an illegal dirt bike near the 69th Street Terminal when the biker struck two pedestrians — a 6-year-old girl and her great aunt. They were critically injured but survived.
However, the officer did not stop to help the victims, which lawyers said was a clear violation of the Philadelphia Police Department’s long-standing “do not chase” directive.
“Hundreds of people are killed every year in police pursuits across America, and in many of those cases, the people involved are bystanders,” said Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel.
Although he would not comment on this case, he said there are very few times when an officer can pursue a suspect by car.
“We pursue in the most serious incidents — the violent felons, the situations where a suspect is an imminent threat and has a deadly weapon,” he explained.
In recent years, city residents have criticized police for not pursuing drivers during chaotic car, motorcycle and dirt bike meet-ups. Officers are instead directed to break up the groups — and have been hurt doing so.
“I understand the concerns, but I cannot, nor should we be the cause of these pursuits, be losing lives, losing police officer lives, and, most importantly across the board, losing lives of people across the community,” he said.
If an officer decides to chase a suspect by car, Bethel said a supervisor must monitor every move and constantly re-evaluate the officer’s actions.
“I choose life over the risk of someone losing their life because we are chasing a car, particularly for a stolen auto or some low-level offense — they ran in and had a retail theft and then ran and jumped in a car. It’s just not worth it,” he said.
The officer named in the lawsuit is still employed by the police department. It’s unclear what, if any, consequences he faced.