SF Police Chase That Injured 6 in Bar Crash Would’ve Been Barred Before Proposition E

San Francisco officials are pressing the Police Department on its loosened car pursuit policy after a chase on Super Bowl Sunday ended in a crash in the Mission District that sent six people to the hospital.

Under questioning from the Police Commission on Wednesday night, Chief Bill Scott said the pursuit is still being investigated. He acknowledged, however, that it would not have been allowed under the department’s previous policy.

That policy was relaxed in March when voters approved former Mayor London Breed’s Proposition E, expanding police powers to pursue vehicles whose occupants were suspects in any felony or a “violent misdemeanor.” The move broke from a national trend to limit dangerous chases to situations involving violent felonies or misdemeanors that pose an imminent public safety threat.

“There was a real concern that if we liberalized our policy even further, that we would have more collisions, more injuries to innocent members of the public. That’s what we got this week,” said Police Commissioner Max Carter-Oberstone. “It’s early in Prop. E’s tenure —- do you think it’s worth reconsidering whether this policy is serving the public interest and public safety?”

Sunday’s chase ended when a silver SUV plowed through the outdoor seating at the Napper Tandy sports bar just after the Super Bowl kicked off, destroying the parklet and injuring patrons who were watching the game on a large outdoor screen. Police had tried to pull over the silver Audi at Stonestown Galleria on the city’s west side about 30 minutes earlier after getting a notice that it had been stolen in the East Bay.

The driver, Taylor Ross of San Francisco, “failed to yield” to officers’ attempt to pull over the car, fleeing east across the city to the Mission, sideswiping multiple cars and a traffic pole near the BART station at 24th and Mission streets as she swerved through the busy commercial corridor, police said.

Ross, 27, and Eureeka Abrams of Bay Point, 29, were arrested shortly after the crash and charged Wednesday by District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. Ross faces 24 counts related to evading a police officer, vehicle theft, and a hit and run causing injuries. Abrams also faces seven charges. The women both had outstanding warrants in other California counties, including for grand theft.

The vehicle they were driving was reported stolen out of Richmond.

Supervisor Jackie Fielder, who represents the Mission, criticized the police pursuit on Sunday, calling it a “miracle” that no one died in the “dangerous high-speed chase.”

She sent a formal letter of inquiry to Scott this week, requesting additional information about the department’s decision to pursue the car.

“How did this incident comply with current SFPD policy, and how did it rise to the level of vehicle pursuit that ultimately put many lives in danger?” Fielder’s letter asks.

She opposed Proposition E during her campaign, pointing to data showing that police chases often go wrong and kill upwards of two people per day nationwide.

Among California law enforcement agencies, the San Francisco Police Department has one of the worst apprehension rates and highest collision rates during pursuits, according to Carter-Oberstone, a progressive commissioner who Mayor Daniel Lurie is trying to oust.

“When there is a threat to people’s lives, it is understood that there may be a need for such a policy, however, in this case, the public deserves to know if were there other options that could have avoided such a confrontation that resulted in significant bystander injuries and extensive damages to a local business establishment,” Fielder wrote in her inquiry.

Scott said he was open to a wider discussion about pursuits but added that the expanded policy — approved by voters — had to be followed.

“In this situation, it ended up with a bad outcome, but let’s not draw any conclusions as to why those outcomes [happened],” he told commissioners. “The bottom line is the driver of that vehicle ran into that parklet, not the officers.”

Carter-Oberstone also pressed Scott about why drones, another controversial power expanded by Proposition E, couldn’t be used in such police chases to avoid putting bystanders in danger.

“I remember one of the biggest selling points of Prop. E was that we were going to deploy drones in precisely these scenarios, and it would avoid these types of outcomes,” Carter-Oberstone said. “But I hear you saying now that we actually don’t have the types of drones that are capable of doing that.”

There are some drones with the technology to join a vehicle pursuit and allow officers to maintain a greater distance, Scott said, but the city’s current fleet doesn’t have that capability.

He said the six drones in use now work in short, lower-speed pursuits but can’t keep pace with ones like Sunday’s. The department has also ordered 22 more for district stations that don’t have the technology.