Metro's New Pursuit Policy Limits All Officers to 100MPH for Any Situation and only 20MPH Over if Lieutenant Approves, Significantly Restricting Pursuits and Responding to Crimes in Progress Despite Recent Media Articles Saying Metro Will Pursue Aggresively
Las Vegas, Nevada.
By Chris (author, writer for VBA),
A flurry of communications came in overnight to our social media channels with patrol officers expressing discontent with the current state of policing and the push to restrict officers from doing their jobs but allowing violent criminals and felons to exceed oftentimes 100mph. "This is the dumbest thing I've heard with my nearly two decades of policing," says one patrol officer. The push comes at a time when the department has been selling off the idea that they loosened restrictions to aggressively chase vehicles to media outlets such as Fox 5 back in June, 2026. The new policy clearly states that "under no circumstances will officers go over 100 mph."
"There is some truth to why the pursuit policy needs a hard limit," says a seasoned Sergeant. "We have had so many collisions resulting in injured or deceased officers from speeding, it really isn't worth it to risk our lives speeding." While there is truth to this statement and it arguably validates the changes, it is still a highly contested topic and we internally ran a poll to get a gauge on what officers were feeling about these changes. Approximately 78% of officers did not support the new policy (about 650 officers.)
It is expected that government agencies such as Las Vegas Metro prioritize saving lives first as it is the most sacred duty for any law enforcement agency. The U.S. Constitutiton and several case laws reaffirm the need for prioritizing lives over methods of crime fighting. However, what if the bad guy(s) are committing violent felonies in the process of going over 100mph (such as shooting at other vehicles, carrying a hostage, having just committed a mass murder?) Will Metro really tell the public we had to slow down because policy was prioritized over saving lives?
My advice to officers is to continue following the policy to a tee and express your concerns with supervisors. Speeding and poor driving is an issue that is widely recognized at all levels within the department. Yes, it sucks, and it will inevitably let most of the high speed criminals get away (especially when air unit or drone is not available.) But, there is solid ground for why these changes had to be made. The department has to follow Nevada Revised Statutes (it's the law.)
The other perspective of this issue that will need to be taken seriously is that the public will express outrage if innocent victims are harmed or killed when officers cannot respond fast enough. Hopefully, brass and leadership will come to fruition for a solution that allows officers to break the speed limit for deadly force or active emergencies. This way, officers and the department cannot be blamed for their response time.
What are your thoughts? Comment below.