Ricardo Rios Torres is spending his week in the hospital with broken ribs, internal bleeding, stitches, and bruising.
His daughter, who didn’t want to be identified, tells us with his injuries the 50-year-old is now hard to recognize.
"It's horrible how something can happen just in seconds and minutes and not even realizing it happened," she said.
Torres was driving to his brother's house on Tuesday when a car being pursued by police slammed into him, sending him to the hospital with critical injuries.
It's the latest case of a police chase gone wrong in Milwaukee that prompted us to ask city officials if something needs to change.
Common Council President, Jose Perez says there is a fine line that makes adjusting pursuit policy a difficult decision.
“There’s a danger sometimes with pursuits and there's also a danger not doing anything,” Perez said.
He advocated for the current policy that took hold in 2017, saying accidents and reckless driving at that time were a major concern at the time, too.
“We wanted police to let people know you're not going to get away with reckless driving.”
Now, it seems the pendulum has swung in the other direction with chases skyrocketing over the past 5 years and nearly 22% of them ending in crashes.
Perez admits there are more questions to consider in preventing future harm from this.
“Are we exhausting every opportunity and the best technology, so we don't have to chase our way out of these situations?”
I brought the same question on pursuit police to Milwaukee police chief Jeffery Norman.
“Do you think it's worth it to continue to follow these people, who aren't listening to the law, in order to apprehend them when it puts people in harm's way?” TMJ4’s Mariam Mackar asked.
“Our community has spoken loudly about what they want to see of us being proactive,” replied Norman. “There's also a sense in looking at our training, but we always are reviewing and making sure that we are doing what it takes to not only have safety for our officers -- that is extremely important-- but also safety for our community.”
Both Norman and Perez say they will be holding discussions with the community and the Fire and Police Commission to see what can be done about this violent trend in pursuits.
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