As early as Friday, the Chicago Police Department will rewrite its rules governing the use of deadly force and ban the city’s 13,000 police officers from firing at a suspect’s vehicle–even in extreme cases when the car is being used as a weapon to harm, or kill, the officer.
Under the new rule, which will put Chicago in line with such other big cities as New York and Atlanta, police will be allowed to fire into vehicles only under the most extreme circumstances: if a suspect fires at police from a car, for instance, or if a suspect is attempting to kill someone inside a car.
The change, which has angered police union officials, follows an incident earlier this week when an officer fired into a carjacking suspect’s car while a 2-year-old was in the back seat. A series of other shootings over the past year–most notably the fatal shooting of motorist LaTanya Haggerty in 1999–has also focused attention on the issue.
Officials said the officer in Monday’s shooting, who police said had a clear view of the suspect and the boy, acted appropriately in firing the shot, which slightly injured the suspect.
The child was unharmed. But police know the bullet could easily have ricocheted and struck the boy. And while he stopped short of criticizing the Monroe District officer who fired the shot, Supt. Terry Hillard acknowledged the officer–and the department–got lucky.
“It went our way today,” he said after Monday’s shooting. “The man upstairs was with us.”
Since 1986, when Chicago police adopted new rules for the use of deadly force, the department has discouraged officers from firing at suspects’ cars, but permitted it as a “last resort” to save their lives or the lives of innocent civilians.
In the past year, however, officials said Hillard noticed a disturbing climb in the number of such incidents, and he even had the department produce a short film illustrating the folly of shooting at moving vehicles that was shown to officers.
The working language of the new policy, according to sources, would read: “Firing at or into a vehicle is forbidden except when an occupant of the vehicle is using force likely to cause death or great bodily harm against another, other than the operation of the vehicle itself.”
Fraternal Order of Police official Bob Podgorny said the union would challenge the policy if it does not allow for some flexibility. “How can you say never? … I don’t want a police officer out there to be second guessing himself and thinking he is going to be losing his job and instead loses his life.”
Hillard refused Thursday to give specifics of the new policy, which should be finalized Friday. But he was clear that firing on a car presents too many risks.
“This weapon that we carry … is supposed to be used as a last resort,” he said. “It’s been proven time and time again with police departments across the country this handgun is not going to stop a vehicle.”
The new rule will put the onus on officers to get out of the way in dangerous situations. “That’s what it’s about, positioning yourself in a tactical situation where you don’t’ have to shoot at that vehicle,” Hillard said.
Or, as one top police official put it Thursday, “get out of the way … If you’re standing on the train tracks, would you shoot at a train coming at you or get off the tracks?”
Hillard would not say how much flexibility will be written into the new policy, but he suggested there would be little.
“I’d like to say we can come up with all types of ifs. … But you have to have a policy that’s very restrictive, very definitive and very specific.”
Still, he acknowledged there may be situations–a man driving through Daley Plaza trying to kill anyone in his sights–where shooting at the car would be excused.
The movement toward a more restrictive policy comes three years after a string of serious accidents forced the department to tighten its rules governing police pursuits, and it reflects a shift in departments across the country, said University of South Carolina criminology professor Geoffrey Alpert.
Many departments continue to “stay silent” on the use of deadly force and maintain loose rules, but more and more are turning to policies that limit when an officer can fire a gun, Alpert said.
Still, there remain wide discrepancies. New York forbids shooting at cars, as does Atlanta, but Los Angeles and the Illinois State Police have policies much like Chicago’s old one, allowing police to shoot at vehicles when their life or another’s is in jeopardy.
The reason for the shift, Alpert said, is the inherent danger of firing at moving cars. Bullets can ricochet, he said, and if a suspect is killed the car becomes “an unguided missile.”
“It’s not like target practice,” he said, noting the stress and speed of life-and-death situations. “You’re not likely to hit what you’re aiming at and if you do, you’ve got a problem anyway.”
