2011 Connecticut Code
Title 14 Motor Vehicles. Use of the Highway By Vehicles. Gasoline
Chapter 248 Vehicle Highway Use
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.