Police chases are full of drama, and for those reading about it in the newspaper or watching it on television, they can seem very exciting. But there are people involved in those chases, and innocent bystanders on the roads. These people often end up getting hurt, or even killed, as the chase often ends in a collision. When it does, should the police officer that caused the crash by chasing another vehicle have immunity from a civil lawsuit?
It is a question the California Supreme Court will have to answer soon, as a lawsuit has been filed against the Gardena Police Department. In 2015, a Gardena police officer chased a pickup truck with two people in it when the officer suspected the people inside had used a firearm in order to steal two cellphones.
The chase had only been on for a little over a minute when the police officer used a PIT maneuver meant to force the other vehicle sideways and stop. This maneuver is used by other police departments as well, but is considered to be lethal when a vehicle does it while traveling at a speed higher than 35 miles per hour. The officer was traveling at 50 miles per hour at the time.
The passenger in the truck, Mark Gamar, was only 19 and that maneuver killed him. His mother, Irma Ramirez, was driving the truck and survived. She is now suing the Gardena Police Department.
While police chases may seem like events that do not happen all that often, in California there are approximately 23 that happen every day. Often, 25 percent of the time according to the California Highway Patrol, those chases end in collisions. And in 2016, these types of chases caused 762 injuries and 24 deaths.
Currently, police officers have immunity in these cases, meaning that a lawsuit cannot be filed against them. While many bills have been proposed to take away this immunity protection, most have been struck down.
There was a new law passed in Sacramento in 2007 that stated officers would only be granted immunity if they certified that they had read the pursuit policy to ensure police chases were done in a safe and proper manner. The Gardena Police Department has the same type of policy.
The problem is that it is not enforced. Law enforcement agencies have fully admitted it is near impossible to get everyone certified. And instead of expecting the policies to simply be enforced, police departments are even given incentives for 100 percent compliance in their department. Those incentives include total immunity even when an officers acts with extreme recklessness and causes great harm.
“Officers are supposed to be protecting the public,” says Larry Disparti of Disparti Law Group, P.A. “not harming innocent bystanders and even those they are trying to catch. Giving them immunity is simply stating that police officers are above the very law they are meant to enforce.”
