Brandon police non-pursuit policy prioritizes public safety

Brandon resident John Jackson was driving home on April 8 with morning coffee and stopped at a red light near the Corral Centre, when he saw a Brandon police car trigger its emergency sirens and lights.

The police car approached an older-model car on the road and signalled it to pull over. It was 8:55 a.m.

The car’s driver accelerated through the intersection at Kirkcaldy Drive and 14th Street, turned left and sped into the Corral Centre parking lot, fleeing the police car.

The vehicle continued through the shopping centre parking lot before Jackson lost sight of it.

“I was thinking, ‘How will this end?” he said.

It didn’t end with a high-speed police pursuit. That’s because in the interest of public safety, Brandon Police Service has a policy to refrain from car chases in most situations.

In the April 8 case, the plates of the suspect car didn’t match the vehicle.

“There’s very few situations that warrant a pursuit anymore,” BPS Const. Ryan Friesen said in a phone interview Wednesday. “Most guys, they throw the lights on, and if the (drivers) stop, great. If they don’t, the lights go off right away and that’s it.”

Non-pursuit policies have gained traction in areas all over Canada, not just Brandon, as police services prioritize the safety of innocent civilians.

The policy is double-edged, however, since by letting drivers escape, police lower the chances of catching suspects. There is also the question of evidence that drove away with the car.

Friesen said his learning moment was around five years ago. He chased a suspect out of Brandon and through Kemnay toward the Trans-Canada Highway. The suspect drove across the highway and crashed into a snowbank.

“I literally saw sparks as he went across the highway. That’s how fast he was going,” said Friesen. “Luckily, he didn’t get hurt, but if there hadn’t been snow in the ditch, he probably would have … It was super dangerous.”

He said the incident raised questions for him about whether the chase was worth it to catch someone in a $2,000 stolen car.

While the non-pursuit policy is rooted in public safety, there is another concern police have, Friesen said. Culture today puts high public scrutiny on police, so in the back of officers’ minds, they fear they will be blamed for damage caused by the pursuit.

“If somebody ends up dying or getting hurt when you’re pursuing somebody, it’s going to come back on that member to a degree, right?” said Friesen. “They’re looking like we’re to blame for people’s decisions to not just pull over and listen to the police and follow the direction.”

When asked what the public loses by not chasing suspects, Friesen said that’s subjective. Police never know what they will find at the end of a pursuit. In the case of the stolen car five years ago, the suspect was found to be tied to multiple break-ins in Brandon and had a prohibited firearm — a sawed-off shotgun — in the passenger seat. These facts were discovered as a result of catching the suspect, but would have been undiscovered if there had been no pursuit.

But options to catch suspects are broadening. With today’s technology, there are many ways to follow up even if the suspect drives away untouched. BPS said in cases like the April 8 incident near the Corral Centre, police would get the licence-plate number, descriptions of the driver and the vehicle, and other details that can convert into leads at a later date.

Brandon University professor Chris Schneider agreed with that notion. He said police have an easier time connecting the dots and piecing together information than they did in the past. As a result, there’s less urgency to catch someone right away.

“In this day and age, 2025, I mean, the police know who you are,” said Schneider. “If you’re driving a car, the tags are registered. Even if it’s stolen, maybe the people are known to police.”

Today’s abundance of cameras is another factor that makes investigations stronger, he said. And police can better manage information today, so it’s harder to justify high-speed chases than it was in the past.

The downside, Schneider said, is that police have to spend a lot of time doing these investigations when they may have better things to do.

For the April 8 incident, that may be the case — both BPS and RCMP said that details on the suspect who fled are few and far between. Brandon-area RCMP said they did not have anything on the incident, and BPS said they didn’t have much either.

“It was literally, ‘Saw the vehicle. Plates didn’t match. Tried to stop. Last seen heading out by the airport out of city limits, RCMP were notified,’” said Friesen. “That was all the information.”

Friesen said the risk to pursue someone in flight is also coloured by the fact that if caught, like the car thief with a shotgun five years ago, the benefit to society can seem negligible. To catch the person, the officer may be endangering innocent people and those risks have to be considered paramount.

“For that member, in that moment, you’re thinking about the safety is No. 1. But then it’s like, OK, what’s traffic like? What’s speed like? Foot traffic, vehicle traffic, time of day, visibility, weather? Is it slippery out? Is it raining?”

In the April 8 case at the Corral Centre, the man with non-matching licence plates posed a considerable risk by speeding into the shopping mall parking lot. Friesen said as far as he can tell from the notes, the officer disabled their emergency lights and followed the suspect from a distance all the way to the outskirts of town, then turned back to Brandon.

This story was originally published in the Brandon Sun. It is republished under a Creative Commons license as part of the Local Journalism Initiative.