Study: NYPD's 2022 surge in car chases brought hundreds more crashes and no drop in crime. A Council bill to set chase rules has had no hearing

The NYPD's sharp increase in high-speed vehicle chases starting in 2022 led to hundreds of additional crashes without any measurable effect on crime, according to a new peer-reviewed study reported Monday by Streetsblog.

The paper, by Justin Nix of the University of Nebraska Omaha and John Hall, published in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology, found that pursuits rose roughly 25-fold in 2022, from about eight a month to about 200. The researchers estimate the change caused about 675 additional collisions, 355 additional injuries and seven additional deaths through 2025. Robberies and gun violence showed no change beyond national trends, Streetsblog reported. Nix told Streetsblog that about a third of the people hurt or killed were not the ones fleeing police.

The expansion began under Mayor Eric Adams and was formalized in an August 2023 memo. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch reversed it in 2025, limiting chases to serious crimes and discouraging them near schools and playgrounds. Pursuits have since fallen but remain slightly above pre-2022 levels, according to Streetsblog. The NYPD did not respond to Streetsblog's requests for comment.

Why it matters to residents: the study puts numbers on the risk to bystanders, and the rules that now limit chases are department policy that a future commissioner could change. The Council has two bills that would put requirements into city law.

What our records add

A bill to write chase rules into law has not had a hearing. Int. 129, from Council Member Tiffany L. Cabán, would set requirements for when and how officers may pursue vehicles, according to its plain-language summary. It would:

• allow no more than two police units in a pursuit;
• require a supervisor's authorization before a pursuit starts;
• ban the "tactical vehicle intervention," or PIT maneuver, and require training for other intervention techniques;
• require publication of pursuit footage and an annual report;
• require every pursuit to be reviewed by the commissioner and a board the commissioner convenes.

It has seven co-sponsors: Alexa Avilés, Chi A. Ossé, Farah N. Louis, Jennifer Gutiérrez, Justin E. Sanchez, Shahana K. Hanif and Shanel Thomas-Henry. It was introduced Jan. 29 and referred to the Committee on Public Safety, chaired by Oswald J. Feliz. It has waited 278 days without a hearing. The summary notes it carries forward a bill from the previous Council session, Int. 1431-2025.

A second bill would track police driving. At the Council's March 10 stated meeting, Yusef Salaam, a former chair of the Public Safety Committee, said the city has no systematic way to track whether police vehicles exceed speed limits. He said that as chair he had repeatedly asked for, and not received, the NYPD patrol guide section on pursuits. His bill, Int. 780, would require the NYPD to publish daily maps of collisions involving department vehicles and of places where department vehicles exceeded the speed limit, according to its title. It has waited 238 days.

The NYPD told the Council its new policy worked. At the Public Safety Committee's March 18 budget hearing, the NYPD's opening testimony said the department had amended its pursuit policy so that chases are limited to the most serious and dangerous crimes. The testimony said pursuits dropped nearly 65% in 2025 compared with 2024, fatalities fell by more than 80%, collisions by 50% and injuries by almost half (19:57).

The new study's numbers and the department's are measured differently: the researchers compare the 2022 to 2025 period with what they estimate would have happened without the policy, while the NYPD's figures compare one year with the one before.

What's next

Neither bill is on an upcoming agenda. The Public Safety Committee would have to hold a hearing and vote before either could reach the full Council. The Council next meets Nov. 12.