KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Over the last year, six Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department chases have ended in serious injury.

On Sunday, someone was killed and two others were hospitalized after a chase.  

“You don’t want anyone injured or killed during a vehicle pursuit,” Chief of Police Karl Oakman said.

From Jan. 8, 2022, to Jan. 8, 2023, the KCK Police Department has been in a number of police chases, six resulting in serious injury.

In one of those, the department said they terminated the chase prior to the crash.

“Of course there’s too many, but you have to look at each individual factor,” Oakman said.

Three of these crashes that resulted in injury crossed the state line. That is within the law for KCK officers to continue to pursue if the case meets the pursuit criteria. The standard is if the suspect has committed a dangerous felony.

The factors they consider before chasing a car are: weather, time of day, traffic, familiarity with the area and speed.

FOX4 reached out to KCPD, and they have no update on the deadly crash from Sunday. Oakman had a message for the family caught in the middle of this tragedy.

“We’re definitely sorry for their loss and that could have been any of our family members. That’s why we do everything we possibly can to make a bad situation safer,” he said.

Oakman said they have opened an internal investigation to make sure their officers acted accordingly in Sunday’s deadly crash.

He said the investigation will determine whether discipline will apply for those involved or if there needs to be policy change in regard to police pursuit.