LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Last month, Channel 13 was first to report that the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department changed its pursuit policy, expanding when officers can pursue suspects in additional circumstances, including occupied stolen vehicles and suspected impaired drivers.
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Sheriff says Metro changed pursuit policy, officers now chasing more suspects
The story prompted an immediate response from viewers.
Many supported Metro's tougher approach to crime. Others had a different concern:
What happens if an innocent driver is simply in the wrong place at the wrong time?
Channel 13 took that question directly to the people behind the change.
WATCH | Metro's new pursuit policy raises public safety questions
Recent pursuits illustrate why the concern resonates with many drivers.
On April 4, police say a pursuit involving a stolen vehicle ended when the suspect crashed into another driver's vehicle near Durango Drive and Cheyenne Avenue. Four people were hospitalized, including the unrelated driver.
Just a few months earlier, Metro's previous pursuit policy generally would not have allowed officers to pursue those cases.
Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the change became necessary because too many suspects had come to believe officers would not chase them.
"I was just getting to the point where nobody would stop if they were in the middle of committing a crime," McMahill said.
Channel 13 posed the community's concern to Steve Grammas, president of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association.
Grammas acknowledged the concern, saying officers are trained to continually evaluate whether a pursuit should continue.
Under Metro's policy, a supervising sergeant monitors the pursuit and has the authority to end it if the risk becomes too great.
"The last thing you want to do is have a family that we have to talk to that... 'Hey, you lost your mom or your dad because we were chasing some bad guy,'" Grammas said.
Channel 13 also asked McMahill what he would say to people concerned about becoming innocent bystanders during a pursuit.
"We're still very calculated about when we go out and chase somebody. We don't just chase somebody for no reason," McMahill said.
The sheriff said today's pursuits rely on more than patrol cars. Metro now uses helicopters, drones and grapplers as part of its strategy, while supervisors monitor pursuits in real time and can call them off if conditions become too dangerous.
Even so, McMahill acknowledged the department is continuing to evaluate the policy.
"Do I have some things that I probably have to tweak in the pursuit policy? Yes," McMahill said. "But we are pursuing more people without a doubt."
Metro believes the updated policy will stop more criminals from getting away.
Whether it can do that while continuing to protect innocent people sharing the road will be one of the biggest questions moving forward.
Metro's latest annual data shows pursuits were already increasing before the policy change, rising from 51 pursuits in 2024 to 60 in 2025.
Because the revised policy did not take effect until March, it will likely be months before its full impact can be measured.
Channel 13 will continue tracking pursuit statistics and examining not only how often these pursuits happen, but what they ultimately mean for public safety across the Las Vegas Valley.
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