A marked NYPD cruiser crashed into a passing Nissan on Friday during a breakneck Brooklyn pursuit of a motorist who refused to pull over, according to police.
The two cops inside the cruiser were hospitalized following the 10:30 p.m. crash at the corner of Putnam and Central Aves. in Bushwick Friday. Three occupants inside the Nissan were also hospitalized.
None of the injuries were deemed to be life-threatening.
Friday’s crash occurred as cops switch up their tactics on handling police pursuits following a handful of headline-grabbing crashes, including one in August when a driver in a stolen car fleeing police injured 10 people after he careened across a busy Manhattan sidewalk.
The Brooklyn officers were on patrol on Central Ave. when they witnessed a motorist ahead of them driving erratically and breaking several rules of the road, cops said.
Hitting their lights and siren, the officers tried to pull the motorist over, but the driver sped off down the road.
Cops were pursuing the car past Putnam Ave. with their lights and sirens on when they crashed into the Nissan, cops said.
The car they were chasing sped off. No arrests were made. The cops and the occupants of the Nissan were taken to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center and Brookdale University Hospital, where they were listed in stable condition.
On Saturday, cops couldn’t say how fast the officers were going or how long they had pursued the runaway car before they crashed.
The NYPD has no formal definition of a vehicle pursuit — although a working group should have one by year’s end — and has no data regarding how many pursuits its officers have been involved in.
The NYPD this past summer tweaked its approach to vehicle pursuits, opting to use drones and other forms of technology to track fleeing suspects, particularly those sought for less serious crimes, officials said. It is also communicating more with suburban authorities about suspects heading into or out of the city and opting when possible to have cops create roadblocks ahead of a suspect rather than speed behind them.
The measures, put in place to reduce the risks posed by pursuits, were taken after several cop car crashes occurred following a public pronouncement that police were not going to let fleeing suspects get a pass.
“People thinking they can take off on us — those days are over,” NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said at a news conference in July, “The days of driving around this city, lawless, doing what you think you’re going to do — those days are over.”
By the end of October, 30 cops have been warned and received intervention by NYPD brass about how they conduct car chases, yet more needs to be done, critics have said.
“Given how dangerous police pursuits are for pedestrians, bicyclists, drivers and officers, the NYPD needs to issue and enforce detailed rules limiting chases,” NYCLU Legal Director Christopher Dunn told the Daily News last month. “The Police Department also must end the secrecy around car chases and release information about the number of car chases, the circumstances of those chases, and what the NYPD is doing about officers who violate controlling guidelines.”