Fresno Police update pursuit policy, giving officers more discretion in high-speed chases

The Fresno Police Department updated its pursuit policies on Tuesday, a move that Chief Paco Balderrama said was not related to but obviously follows four fatal crashes involving area law enforcement since the end of December.

“This is not something that we just started working on,” Balderrama said. “I actually began working on reviewing and improving our policies since I got here in January, and this particular policy has been one that we have been working on for the better part of a few months.

“I believe that part of our duty as police leaders is to make better policies for our employees to follow. Law enforcement is changing. There are a lot of improvements that are being made. But we also make huge, huge demands on our police officers and that is why it is up to leadership to have the best possible policies based on the best practices from across the country, to give our police officers the tools that they need to do their jobs.”

Fresno officers under the updated policy will have more discretion and control when in pursuit, allowing for a primary officer, a secondary officer or a supervisor to terminate a pursuit if deemed too dangerous, Balderrama said, in summarizing the updates.

The update limits the use of undercover police vehicles and motorcycles in high-speed pursuits and when Fresno Police SkyWatch air support is available to pursue a vehicle, the ground units also will back off. The goal is to get the driver of the vehicle being pursued to slow down and exit the vehicle to be apprehended by police.

Officers also will be discouraged from engaging in a pursuit if with a ride-along or passenger who is not law enforcement.

“There are going to be some circumstances that are extreme,” Balderrama said. “When we have a person in the city who we have reason to believe that they have not only hurt or killed someone and they’re going to continue to hurt or kill someone, then obviously we have an obligation in that type of situation to continue the pursuit.

“At this time while we only allow two pursuing officers and a supervisor, that supervisor has the discretion, if we know it’s going to be a very dangerous situation trying to take this person into custody, they can add additional pursuing officers as long as they are following policy and using due caution.”

Recent law enforcement pursuits in Fresno that ended with deaths

Balderrama said the updated policies would likely not have impacted the recent fatal collisions including one last week when Hannah Pimentel, 19, of Clovis, was killed when her vehicle was struck by a man believed to be a Bulldog gang member who was traveling at a high rate of speed near Stanislaus and N streets downtown.

The driver of that vehicle, who has been identified as Marc Cain Rodriguez, was fleeing from a California Highway Patrol officer who is part of the Multi-Agency Gang Enforcement Consortium (MAGEC).

Rodriguez, who is wanted for several weapons violations, was pulled over in Chinatown. But after initially pulling over, he sped away. The CHP officer lost contact, and later located the vehicle after noticing a cloud of smoke where Rodriguez had collided with the vehicle driven by Pimentel.

Rodriguez fled the scene on foot and has yet to be apprehended.

In December, four people were killed in a collision at Bullard and Palm avenues when the driver of a black Ford Mustang was speeding west after a brief pursuit and ran a red light, striking at least one of the two other vehicles, a white Toyota Tacoma pickup and a silver Mini Cooper.

In March, one person died in a fatal collision at Bullard and West avenues that started as a welfare check by Fresno Police officers a few miles away. The driver of the van sped off when contacted by police, ran through a red light and struck another vehicle.

Later in March, three people were killed when a driver was fleeing from a Fresno County sheriff’s deputy. At least seven vehicles were involved in that crash and five ended up engulfed in flames at McKinley and Cedar avenues in east-central Fresno. One victim was a man in a car by himself, the other two were women riding in a car together.

“In both of the Fresno PD cases, the officers made the right call,” Balderrama said. “They thought that the pursuit was too dangerous to continue and they terminated the pursuit. They called it off and they backed off. It was the person who was driving the vehicle that took that initiative to continue fleeing at a high rate of speed and caused the deaths of innocent others.

“But, regardless of that, these are good policy changes. They bring us up to speed with a lot of the best practices across the country and here at the Fresno PD we want to be cutting edge and we want to stay ahead of that and not be behind.”

Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp praised the updates, but also spoke to drivers who would engage police in a high-speed chase. It is not worth the potential consequences, she said.

“As we’ve seen in Fresno more than one time and very recently in the death of Miss Pimentel, the suspect in that case was definitely fleeing for a reason,” Smittcamp said. “He had a criminal history. He was wanted for a failure to appear warrant, and we all know the tragic end to his story; and now he is facing much more serious charges, and when he is apprehended he will be charged with those crimes.

“I think the most important message here is that, if you are contacted by law enforcement, pull over and face your consequences, whatever those might be: a speeding ticket, a traffic violation, a cell phone ticket. It could be there’s a simple reason you’re being pulled over, and to create further charges for yourself, public safety issues, is really not a smart thing to do. Even if you are a person who has a felony warrant, there are many opportunities for you to resolve those matters with counsel, with the courts, and in other ways that do not involve committing further crimes that do not involve subjecting yourself to further liability within the court system and even a potential life sentence in prison.”

This story was originally published May 18, 2021 at 3:52 PM.