Correlates of Foot Pursuit Injuries in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department

Abstract

Police foot pursuits have come under increased scrutiny in recent years because of concerns of officer-involved shootings and fatalities associated with this tactical response. Consequently, there have been calls for police administrators to place strict limits on officer discretion to engage in foot pursuits. Such limits may be premature, however, given limited empirical evidence regarding the hazards of foot pursuits. To help inform this debate, this study analyzed foot-pursuit injuries using data provided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The findings indicate that in the vast majority of pursuits, deputies and suspects were uninjured or sustained only minor injuries. In this regard, they do not appear to be any more hazardous than resistive encounters generally. However, that suspects were injured in 60% of foot pursuits and that the use of conducted energy devices by deputies was associated with an increased odds of suspect injury suggest the dynamics of foot pursuits may be different.