Baltimore Police report pursuing 29 vehicles last year and seven so far in 2024, after previously saying the department does not track how often officers chase drivers.

Police spokeswoman Lindsey Eldridge provided data Monday, dating to 2016, that recorded the number of fatal and nonfatal vehicle pursuits.

The highest annual number during that period came in 2017 when officers chased 101 vehicles; the lowest was in 2022 at 15.

Eldridge said the department’s earlier response that it didn’t keep track of the information was due to a “miscommunication” caused by two separate data systems.

“Vehicle pursuits are tracked under a more restricted database under our Public Integrity and Compliance Bureau and are not accessible to our data analyst that received the request,” Eldridge said.

She referred a question about the importance of tracking pursuit data to the department’s policy, which states that members must “use sound judgment and discretion while upholding the sanctity of human life in all instances of emergency response and pursuit.”

A recent statewide spate of pursuits, which have killed several bystanders and passengers across Maryland, prompted concern from state Attorney General Anthony Brown. He told The Baltimore Sun in an interview that he is “alarmed and deeply troubled by the frequency of these incidents.”

Three women were killed weeks apart in April by drivers fleeing from different law enforcement agencies in Maryland; none involved Baltimore Police. None of those who died were the people who were the target of the attempted police stops.

Since Oct. 1, 2021, the attorney general’s Independent Investigations Division has investigated deaths involving police officers, which can include deaths resulting from pursuits. During that time, the majority of those killed in police chases were either a passenger in the vehicle being pursued or were “bystanders” in an unrelated vehicle.

Baltimore Police saw three fatalities tied to pursuits during that period, tying with Montgomery County Police and the Charles County Sheriff’s Office for the highest number.

None of the three Baltimore deaths resulted in criminal charges. A fourth fatal collision involving Baltimore Police, which took place when an officer driving to an unrelated call struck a man on a scooter, was prosecuted earlier this year. The officer pled guilty to vehicular manslaughter and received two years of supervised probation.

The city police department said last week that its data team did not collect information about pursuits. That raised concerns among some, like those from Baltimore attorney Hannah Ernstberger, about whether the agency took a “lackadaisical approach” to the issue.

“I wish I could figure out a good reason for not looking into and investigating and keeping track of these types of things,” said Ernstberger, who represents in a federal lawsuit three women injured in 2021 when a fleeing man struck their car in downtown Baltimore, injuring them permanently.

Experts, too, say tracking the information on pursuits can help police departments identify needed changes.

“You can’t solve a problem if you don’t know what the problem is,” said Geoffrey Alpert, a criminal justice and criminology professor at the University of South Carolina.

Eldridge clarified Monday that the department does, in fact, track data on pursuits through its Public Integrity Bureau, which investigates allegations of officer misconduct.

Baltimore Police’s vehicle pursuit policy requires officers to internally review each police pursuit for potential policy violations. Officers who initiate a pursuit complete an incident report detailing probable cause and how certain circumstances outweighed safety risks.

Supervisors then examine the incident, and their review is evaluated by a shift commander. That commander is expected to document any counseling, referrals for additional training or disciplinary recommendations. The commander reports any misconduct or potential criminal violations to upper command staff and to the department’s Public Integrity Bureau.

The Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington think tank, issued a report in September that encouraged agencies to restrict pursuits to people suspected of violent crimes and who pose an imminent threat of committing another violent crime. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the U.S. Department of Justice had asked the organization to develop recommendations and funded the creation of the report.

When Baltimore Police provided its pursuit data, which includes drops from highs in 2016 and 2017, Eldridge noted the department revised its pursuit policy in 2019 and again this year.

The city’s policy is relatively restrictive compared to other Maryland jurisdictions. It instructs officers to pursue a vehicle only if they have probable cause to believe a suspect inside the vehicle committed a violent felony, and failing to catch them would pose an “immediate threat of death or bodily injury.”

Policies for chases vary across Maryland’s more than 150 law enforcement agencies, which Brown said he would like to see change.

“I would like to see a statewide standard for vehicle pursuits,” Brown said, “but the standard also has to take into account different population densities and geography.”

Baltimore Sun reporter Cassidy Jensen contributed to this article.