Police pursuits are in the spotlight after two chases ended with fatal crashes in the metro in the last week.

In both cases, the suspects who led law enforcement on a chase allegedly crashed into cars occupied by innocent bystanders, killing them.

For years the policies surrounding police pursuits have varied from agency to agency, but recent efforts have been made to create a more uniform approach statewide.

A statewide model policy, finalized this summer by the Minnesota Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Board, requires Minnesota law enforcement agencies to adopt the same or at least a similar policy.

However, even under the revised standard, officers must weigh a web of factors in deciding whether to pursue and when to terminate pursuits they initiate, often in a split second.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS spoke to Jon Farris on Saturday following a police pursuit in Maplewood that ended in a fatal crash. Farris founded the advocacy organization Pursuit For Change nearly 18 years ago after his son was killed by an SUV fleeing police. He has been working to reduce police pursuits ever since.

“Pursuits for a violent felony … are more justified than pursuits of nonviolent felonies,” he argued on Saturday. “For example, a stolen vehicle [is] definitely, you know, more appropriate than for traffic violations or misdemeanor violations.”

The POST Board’s model policy adopted this year took a step in that direction by asking officers to consider the “severity of the offense,” adding that when the person fleeing is suspected of a non-violent offense, “…officers should consider terminating the pursuit.”

The Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office said a man who led deputies on a fatal high-speed chase on Friday night was a “career criminal,” and he was wanted for felony domestic assault at the time.

Last Sunday, state troopers pursued a man wanted for a parole violation related to a 2014 murder but asked this Sunday, a Minnesota State Patrol spokesperson said troopers didn’t know that at the time.

Instead, troopers initially stopped him for speeding, which is usually a petty misdemeanor.

The pursuit was called off not long after it was initiated, and then the fleeing vehicle caused a fatal crash, officials said at the time.

The POST Board model policy also says traffic levels and “speed of the pursuit” should be considered, and officers should consider calling off a chase if the fleeing vehicle gets out of their sight “for a reasonable period of time” or if “the direction of travel cannot be determined.”

A Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson did not say deputies ever lost sight during the Friday night pursuit but noted they “…had difficulty maintaining visual contact with the vehicle…” in a Saturday press release.

The events of the last week appear to point to a fair amount of grey space in Minnesota police pursuit policies and the split-second decisions they govern.

“It needs to be a really good decision if you’re going to put people’s lives at risk, including, which we didn’t mention, the law enforcement officers,” Farris said, speaking more broadly about pursuits.

“A lot of law enforcement officers have died over the years in pursuits or heading toward a pursuit, and that’s, you know, again, that’s, that’s just sad.”

The suspects in both of these cases face criminal vehicular homicide charges.

Both crashes remain under investigation.

The BCA’s annual Uniform Crime Report showed that the number of pursuits initiated statewide has dropped every year since at least 2021. Traffic violations remain the reason listed for initiating the vast majority of them.