{"id":560212,"date":"2026-02-02T05:05:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T05:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/560212\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T05:05:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T05:05:16","slug":"expert-analyzes-police-chase-decisions-after-2-serious-phoenix-crashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/560212\/","title":{"rendered":"Expert analyzes police chase decisions after 2 serious Phoenix crashes"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX (AZFamily)<\/b> \u2014 A woman is facing multiple felony charges after a high-speed police chase ended with her pickup truck flipping over<\/a> and crashing into three vehicles at a west Phoenix intersection Saturday evening. <\/p>\n

The crash marks the second incident this week involving a driver fleeing from police, raising questions about split-second decisions officers must make when deciding whether to pursue someone or let them go.<\/p>\n

Phoenix police said Esmeralda Galindo-Monje took off after ramming her pickup truck into a police squad car on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The chase led to the intersection of 67th Avenue and Lower Buckeye, where she ran a red light and crashed into three other vehicles, flipping her truck.<\/p>\n

One woman remains hospitalized with serious injuries from the crash. The other adults and two children who were hurt have since been released.<\/p>\n

Galindo-Monje is facing aggravated assault, unlawful flight from law enforcement and aggravated DUI charges, according to court records.<\/p>\n

Expert weighs pursuit policies<\/p>\n

Dr. Roy Taylor, a police procedure expert with more than 30 years of experience, said most agencies use a balancing test when deciding whether to pursue fleeing vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s up to each and every agency to determine how much risk they\u2019re willing to accept in allowing their officers to pursue fleeing vehicles,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

He said the risk of pursuit must be weighed against the risk of leaving the driver on the run. <\/p>\n

Taylor analyzed Saturday\u2019s pursuit and crash with the information available to him. <\/p>\n

\u201cChasing somebody down like that, that\u2019s willing to intentionally crash into a police vehicle, probably trying to hurt a police officer, that means that they\u2019re a threat to society,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cIf they\u2019re willing to go up against a marked unit of a police department, then how safe are you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Second crash highlights difficult decisions<\/p>\n

On Thursday night, a suspected DUI driver sped away from a traffic stop<\/a>, but Phoenix police decided not to pursue. Instead, officers shared a description with other units and their overhead helicopter.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, it\u2019s a balancing test. They\u2019ve already got his license plate number. They may have already gotten his driver\u2019s license number. They know he\u2019s impaired. They see he\u2019s willing to run,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

Minutes after the driver took off, he crossed into oncoming traffic and crashed into another vehicle, killing its driver. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf the driver pulls away, the officer chases him and the same thing happens, then what\u2019s going to happen to the police department? What good did it do to chase him?\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

Taylor said most people injured in police chases are innocent bystanders. <\/p>\n

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here<\/a> with a brief description.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KTVK\/KPHO. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX (AZFamily) \u2014 A woman is facing multiple felony charges after a high-speed police chase ended with her…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":560213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,7182,3459,1589,7183,17042,244720,244723,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,244722,244721],"class_list":["post-560212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-az","tag-azfamily","tag-decision-making","tag-phoenix","tag-phoenix-news","tag-phoenix-police","tag-phoenix-police-pursuit-policy","tag-split-second","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-when-do-police-stop-chasing-a-suspect","tag-why-do-police-chase-people"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115999298341908159","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}