Changes

'''Victor Demarius Steen''' was a young male who was killed when struck by a Pensacola Police cruiseron [[October 3]], [[2009]].

Steen was struck and killed by the cruiser of [[Pensacola Police]] Officer Jerald Ard while riding his bicycle in the [[Brownsville]] neighborhood of Pensacola. Officer Ard claims to have spotted Steen at an empty construction site around 1:50 AM and attempted to stop him for questioning. According to Ard, Steen fled the area. Ard pursued Steen in his police cruiser and attempted to fire a Taser weapon from the window of the moving cruiser. <ref name="ppd1">[http://www.ci.pensacola.fl.us/ppd/press.asp?action=detail&ID=14279 Pensacola Police Department press release, October 3, 2009.]</ref> The chase ended when Steen was struck by the cruiser and dragged until the cruiser came to a stop at a median in an empty parking lot at the corner of [[Cervantes Street|Cervantes]] and [[R Street]]s. Steen was pronounced dead at the scene. ==Reaction==In the days after the incident, Officer Ard was placed on paid administrative leave, per Department policy. On [[October 13]], he returned to plain-clothes duty doing administrative work for the Department's patrol division.<ref>"Ard back to work." ''Pensacola News Journal'', October 22, 2009.</ref> Separate investigations were launched into the incident by the Florida Highway Patrol, which investigates vehicular accidents, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which investigates officer-involved fatalities.<ref name="ppd1" />

Steen's death triggered an internal administrative review of departmental policies, <ref name="ppd2">[http://www.ci.pensacola.fl.us/ppd/press.asp?action=detail&ID=14313 Pensacola Police Department press release, October 7, 2009.]</ref> and several changes were made in the months following Steen's death.

On October 9, 2009, the Department changed its Taser policy to specifically prohibit officers from firing the weapons from a moving vehicle or into a moving vehicle. <ref>"Pensacola police update Taser policy after teen's death." ''Pensacola News Journal'', October 10, 2009.</ref> On November 19, the Department altered its vehicle pursuit policy. The changes prohibit officers from conducting vehicular pursuits "through apartment complexes, yards, or other populated off-road locations" and caution officers to maintain distance from bicyclists and pedestrians so that "the injury risk will not be elevated by a vehicle's proximity to the suspect."<ref>"Pensacola police revise chase policy after death." ''Pensacola News Journal'', December 9, 2009.</ref>