Queens City Council member Tiffany Cabán is set to introduce legislation Wednesday to sharply restrict vehicle pursuits by the NYPD and to require greater transparency when they happen.
Cabán, an attorney and member of the council’s Public Safety Committee, is hoping to deepen reforms of a pursuit regimen already overhauled by NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, following months of reporting by THE CITY on a rampant increase in chases over at least two years.
Through stretches of 2023 and 2024, THE CITY determined, the department’s aggressive approach under then-Chief of Patrol John Chell produced some shocking tallies: more than a collision per day on average, numerous deaths and hundreds of injuries — including to bystanders.
New reporting by THE CITY based on a public disclosure law request — which the NYPD took 15 months to fulfill — has turned up three deaths that resulted from chases that were not previously reported, putting the number of deaths related to vehicle pursuits over those two years at 20.
The records provided revealed that 18 of the 20 people who died were Black or brown. (One case was excluded from the NYPD’s tally, but was identified through reporting by THE CITY).
The previously unreported deaths include those of two adults who were among five people in an SUV pursued by cops in The Bronx last October and a 15-year-old boy, Johnny Zhagnay Chuqui, who was riding his electric bike with a handful of friends in the early hours of July 1, 2024.
Zhagnay was being chased by police in an industrial part of Astoria that morning when he ran through a stop sign and was slammed into by a privately operated bus, according to workers in the area. He died at Elmhurst Hospital the next day.
Zhagnay’s mother, who requested anonymity, said the police department has yet to tell her why cops were pursuing her son, and they’ve ignored her requests to view security camera footage of the incident so that she can see how fast the bus was going.
A spokesperson for the police department press office, who didn’t provide their name when asked, didn’t comment directly on Zhagnay’s mother’s complaints and didn’t respond when asked why cops were chasing the teen.
The spokesperson said the case is still under probe by the department’s Force Investigation Division.
A spokesperson for the office of state Attorney General Letitia James said the office is still conducting a “preliminary assessment” of the death to determine if the actions of a police officer may have had a role in the fatality. The office has purview over any death of a civilian during an encounter with police.
‘Senseless, Needless Death’
Cabán’s proposal would limit pursuits to instances where the suspects are believed to have committed a violent felony, and where the officers believe the suspects pose a “substantial risk of death or serious injury to others” if they’re not immediately caught.
NYPD policy currently allows for pursuits in instances of all kinds of suspected felonies, not just violent ones, as well as of violent misdemeanors.
Cabán’s legislation would also require the NYPD to publish footage from body-worn cameras or dashboard cameras within 30 days of a fatal vehicle chase. It would further direct the NYPD to conduct a monthly analysis of vehicle pursuits and to publish an annual report documenting all pursuits, beginning next March.
It follows steps the NYPD itself has taken. In one of her first major moves, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch in January issued a policy to restrict police pursuits so that they would no longer be sparked by minor traffic violations and non-violent misdemeanors, even as she promoted Chell to chief of department.
Cabán said Tisch’s shift doesn’t go far enough and could be altered by future commissioners unless it’s written into city law.
“We’re still seeing devastating crashes even under this policy,” Cabán told THE CITY in a phone call Tuesday, citing a recent incident on Staten Island that injured two pedestrians. “We’re saying officers should never start a pursuit of someone if they’ve committed a non-violent offense and who doesn’t pose an immediate threat to others.”
The NYPD didn’t comment when asked about the proposed bill.
Amanda’s Law
Chell, who retired this month and will reportedly earn an annual disability pension of $295,000, said he was implementing the NYPD’s policy as it was written at the time.
He attributed the increase in vehicle pursuits during his tenure in part to a rash of crimes with mopeds and an increase in stolen vehicles, as well as to better reporting after officers were required to record pursuits over police radios.
Cabán’s proposed bill requires a public hearing before a vote by the Council’s public safety committee. If it passes, it would go to the full Council for a vote, and, if approved, it would go to the mayor’s desk for consideration.
Cabán said she’s planning to reintroduce the legislation in the session that starts in January if it doesn’t pass by the end of the year.
She said she’s naming her legislation “Amanda’s Law,” in honor of Amanda Servedio, a 36-year-old cyclist who was killed in Astoria last year — the district Cabán represents — by the driver of a Dodge Ram who was pursued by police for 10 minutes after allegedly committing a commercial burglary in Long Island City.
Amanda’s parents, Frank and Ary, said they don’t understand why the rules of engagement for vehicle pursuits weren’t stricter at the time of their daughter’s death.
They told THE CITY they were pleased to see the changes Tisch made and support Cabán’s more stringent measures.
“This was a senseless, needless death, as I’m sure many others were,” said Ary Servedio. “For the rest of our lives we have to live with this.”
The suspected burglar, Bekim Fiseku, 54, was indicted by Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz in June on charges that included second degree murder and manslaughter.
He was also charged with third degree burglary, a class D felony that would be sufficient to spark a pursuit under current NYPD regulations but that would not qualify under the proposed bill.
An attorney for Fiseku, David Louis Cohen, declined to comment.
Dennis Kenney, a longtime policing researcher and professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, said that while the proposed changes would greatly reduce the circumstances under which vehicle pursuits are allowed, it would bring New York City closer to the policy that’s embraced in many other cities.
“It kind of parallels what a lot of police departments around the country have already done,” he told THE CITY. “The majority of pursuits tend to be for traffic offenses or because you tried to make a traffic stop and the individual fled, and that’s all you know,” Kenney added. “So you’re imposing a great deal of risk on the unaware public for very little potential benefit, and most departments are opposed to that.”
