Milwaukee’s Police Chase Policy Is Stuck In Neutral

Milwaukee Police Department officer pulls over a vehicle on N. 12th Ln. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Despite a request from the Fire & Police Commission (FPC) to change the city’s vehicle pursuit policy, the Common Council will let Chief Jeffrey Norman‘s policy stand.

On a 6-9 vote Friday, the council rejected even considering the change. It was the second time in as many months the council voted down changing the policy.

After 10 people died in high-speed chases in 2025, more than half of whom weren’t involved in a chase, the FPC unanimously voted to request Norman change Milwaukee Police Department policy to bar chases from being initiated when an officer attempts to pull a motorist over for a nonreckless driving offense and the motorist flees. The change would eliminate up to 15% of the almost 1,000 chases that happen annually.

“The Milwaukee pursuit policy is dangerous, and it’s dangerous because it’s too permissive,” said then-commission Vice Chair Bree Spencer to the council’s Public Safety & Health Committee on June 11. “We know it’s too permissive because we are way off the national standard.”

MPD opposed the change because it had modified its policy in February to allow officers to terminate chases without threat of discipline if they believed the chase was a threat to public safety. It also prohibited a chase from being initiated with speed as the sole factor. Chief of staff Heather Hough said Norman wants more time to see the impacts of the policy.

After substantial debate, the committee voted 4-1 to recommend rejecting the change, with only Ald. Sharlen P. Moore in opposition.

Then, on June 23, the full council unanimously voted the change down as part of a bulk approval of the committee’s recommendations.

But that wasn’t the end.

Proponents of the policy change sought to revive the effort at the council’s July 14 meeting, but the revised legislation wasn’t ready.

On July 31, they tried again. Moore moved to have the council review the proposal again.

The unusual action would have had the council reopen discussion on a policy it had already “placed on file,” the council’s method of rejecting a proposal.

“That is a dangerous precedent, because that means nothing we as a council have voted down is truly done for a while,” said Ald. Scott Spiker, the Public Safety & Health Committee chair. Items placed on file formally die at the end of the council’s four-year term, the next instance of which is April 2028.

Moore said she was voting to respond to what the public was asking for. “I want to use this opportunity as a moment to share our thoughts and make a decision on it,” said the alderwoman.

“I think the public deserves to know our positions on this,” said Ald. Alex Brower of the pursuits.

But their colleagues didn’t agree.

They needed eight votes to reopen the debate and received only six. Brower, Moore, Andrea Pratt, Lamont Westmoreland, Milele A. Coggs, and Marina Dimitrijevic voted to restart the debate.

Even if they had received eight votes to reconsider the file, passage would have been an even larger hurdle.

The parliamentary thicket the council found itself in was a creation of the Wisconsin Legislature and a negotiation with Mayor Cavalier Johnson.

The 2023 sales tax law, Act 12, stripped the FPC of its policymaking authority. The change was sought by the Milwaukee Police Association and gave more power to the police and fire chiefs. To counterbalance the change, the law granted the council the authority to modify policies with a two-thirds (10 of 15) vote.

Even if Brower and Moore could have persuaded two more colleagues to reopen the debate, they would have needed two more to adopt the change. But with only six votes, the change remains dead, at least for now.

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