San Francisco police chase, parklet crash prompts scrutiny of new chase policy
The crash by a car fleeing San Francisco police into a neighborhood parklet Sunday has prompted a call for a review of police procedures for chasing suspects.
Six people, including a mother and child, were hospitalized when a wanted suspect vehicle crashed into a parklet outside The Napper Tandy sports bar at about 3:30 p.m. near 24th and Van Ness Avenue.
San Francisco police said the crash came moments after the vehicle crashed nearby at 24th and Mission, during a police chase that began across town at the Stonestown Galleria Mall near Buckingham Way and Winston Drive around 3 p.m.
On Tuesday, District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fields said in a press release she was submitting a letter of inquiry to the San Francisco Police Department and Chief Bill Scott about the circumstances surrounding the chase of retail theft suspects, and asking whether the chase was permissible under the city's new vehicle pursuit policy.
Proposition E, pushed by former Mayor London Breed, supported by Mayor Daniel Lurie, and passed by the city's voters in March 2024, loosened restrictions on police chases to allow for vehicle pursuits for retail and vehicle theft if they can be done safely. The police department's previous policy limited car chases to those only involving violent crime suspects.
Fields, whose district encompasses the Mission District, said California state law requires members of law enforcement to balance the offense and need for immediate capture against the risks to motorists, pedestrians, and officers.
"When there is an imminent threat to people's lives, I understand the need for a vehicle pursuit, however, in this case, the public deserves to know whether there were other options that could have avoided such significant bystander injuries, and mechanisms for accountability," said Fielder in a prepared statement.
Fields said Prop E's passage makes San Francisco an outlier among major cities that limit pursuits to only the most serious crimes and is at odds with a 2023 report funded by the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration urging police to limit chases to those involving violent crime suspects and which pose an imminent threat to others.
An investigation by the San Francisco Chronicle found that at least 3,336 people were killed in police pursuits nationwide between 2017 and 2022, and 551 of those deaths were bystanders. Many of these chases followed low-level crimes with officers rarely held accountable when car chases resulted in death or injury, the report found.
Police said of the six people injured, four were in the parklet and two were in the suspect vehicle.
The San Francisco Fire Department said four people have moderate injuries and two have critical injuries. However, the police department said the injuries were not life-threatening and they are recovering.
Two women were arrested after they tried running from the scene. The suspects were later identified as 32-year-old Taylor Ross of San Francisco and 29-year-old Eureeka Abrams of Bay Point. Mission Local reported both were known organized retail theft suspects; Ross had several arrest warrants for violent felonies outside of San Francisco and Abrams had an arrest warrant related to property crime in Los Angeles, the report said.
