Sec. 14-283a. Adoption of state-wide policy for pursuits by police officers.
Sec. 14-283a. Adoption of state-wide policy for pursuits by police officers. (a)
As used in this section, "police officer" means a sworn member of an organized local
police department or a state police officer, which member or officer is assigned to patrol
duties on public streets or highways, and "pursuit" means an attempt by a police officer
in an authorized emergency vehicle to apprehend any occupant of another moving motor
vehicle, when the driver of the fleeing vehicle is attempting to avoid apprehension by
maintaining or increasing the speed of such vehicle or by ignoring the police officer's
attempt to stop such vehicle.
(b) Not later than January 1, 2000, the Commissioner of Public Safety, in conjunction with the Chief State's Attorney, the Police Officer Standards and Training Council,
the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association and the Connecticut Coalition of Police and
Correctional Officers, shall adopt in accordance with chapter 54 a uniform, state-wide
policy for handling pursuits by police officers. Such policy shall specify: (1) The conditions under which a police officer may engage in a pursuit and discontinue a pursuit,
(2) alternative measures to be employed by any such police officer in order to apprehend
any occupant of the fleeing motor vehicle or to impede the movement of such motor
vehicle, (3) the coordination and responsibility, including control over the pursuit, of
supervisory personnel and the police officer engaged in such pursuit, (4) in the case of
a pursuit that may proceed and continue into another municipality, (A) the requirement
to notify and the procedures to be used to notify the police department in such other
municipality or, if there is no organized police department in such other municipality,
the officers responsible for law enforcement in such other municipality, that there is a
pursuit in progress, and (B) the coordination and responsibility of supervisory personnel
in each such municipality and the police officer engaged in such pursuit, (5) the type
and amount of training in pursuits, that each police officer shall undergo, which may
include training in vehicle simulators, if vehicle simulator training is determined to be
necessary, and (6) that a police officer immediately notify supervisory personnel or
the officer in charge after the police officer begins a pursuit. The chief of police or
Commissioner of Public Safety, as the case may be, shall inform each officer within
such chief's or said commissioner's department and each officer responsible for law
enforcement in a municipality in which there is no such department of the existence of
the policy of pursuit to be employed by any such officer and shall take whatever measures
that are necessary to assure that each such officer understands the pursuit policy established.
(P.A. 78-372, S. 1, 2, 7; P.A. 99-171, S. 1, 5.)
History: P.A. 99-171 defined "police officer" in Subsec. (a), amended Subsec. (b) by changing the requirement that
each police department adopt a pursuit policy to a requirement that a uniform, state-wide pursuit policy be adopted, adding
Subdivs. (1) to (6), inclusive, and made technical changes, effective July 1, 1999.
Cited. 208 C. 94.
Subsec. (a):
Cited. 31 CA 669.