SFPD behind the wheel – unsafe at any speed – flaunt guidelines?

Lee Heidhues 6.21.2023

The San Francisco Police Department has guidelines for engaging in high speed pursuit.

Looking at the photographic evidence on display from today’s smash up into a former Italian Restaurant in the heart of the Mission leaves one wondering if the cops read their own rule book.

Excerpted from Mission Local 6.21.2023

In the midst of a high-speed car chase, a San Francisco police SUV ran a stop sign, clipped a motorcycle it appeared to be trying to avoid and injured a child as it crashed into the front of the storefront that was formerly Lucca’s deli on the corner of Valencia and 22rd Street, witnesses said. 

Witnesses saw two people transported by ambulance, one of whom was a child. A witness said he aided both the victims after the crash and that their injuries did not appear life-threatening.

Neither the police department nor San Francisco General Hospital, the city’s go-to trauma center, responded to requests for comment. The victims’ conditions are unknown.

“I was just sitting next to the stop sign and a red car was flying through the stop sign, and the second after that I saw a police cruiser going just as fast,” said Chris, who said he was on 22nd Street west of the intersection and that the speeding red car was going “50 to 60 miles per hour” towards Valencia.

The car sped down 22nd Street, Chris said, followed by “a police cruiser chasing it with lights on.”

Chris ran down 22nd following the chase and saw the police SUV had crashed into Lucca’s facade, he said. The red car, witnesses said, sped off westbound on 22nd.

Robert Reyes, who lives on the corner directly opposite the store and was standing on the corner, said he saw the entire incident. He was waiting to cross the street when he saw a maroon Mercedes-Benz run a red light on Valencia Street, followed by the police SUV.

He said that the red car “slowed down” when it approached the intersection before speeding up and fleeing down 22nd Street. The police car, sirens on, followed and ran the red light, striking a motorcyclist cruising on Valencia.

San Francisco police officers are permitted to engage in vehicle chases under certain conditions.

San Francisco Police Department
GENERAL ORDER
5.05
Rev. 05/22/13
Eff. 06/26/13
EMERGENCY RESPONSE AND PURSUIT DRIVING

IV. VEHICLE PURSUITS
A. PURSUIT GUIDELINES

1. WHEN A PURSUIT IS AUTHORIZED. Except as otherwise provided in this order,
   an officer in an emergency vehicle may initiate a pursuit of an individual:
   a. Suspected of a violent felony; or
   b. When there is an articulable reasonable belief that the individual needs to be
   immediately apprehended because of the risk that individual poses to public
   safety.

Two hit, hospitalized by SFPD squad car in high-speed chase