The protest, organized largely by the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression, highlighted a series of recent collisions linked to police chases. On Nov. 1, an 18-year-old driver named David Hunt was killed when his vehicle was struck at Layton Boulevard and Greenfield Avenue. On Oct. 19, Jose Lezama-Flores died at 30th and Center streets; he was a passenger in another vehicle. A day later, a fleeing driver was killed in a crash near 27th and Highland.

"Responding to reckless driving with more reckless driving isn't the answer," said Julie Velazquez, outreach chair for the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression.

The group stressed that it is not seeking an outright ban on police pursuits, but rather tighter restrictions aimed at protecting innocent people.

"Their lives are being taken for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Tiffany Stark, who has been advocating for policy changes for more than a year. "Their lives matter, and there's something we can do and that we could have done, and we're continuing the same cycle. How many more innocent people die, and we're just going to be okay with it?"

Stark added: "We weren't trying to stop all the chases, but we wanted restrictions to protect people from these chases that are not worth someone's life."

Mayor Cavalier Johnson, asked about the recent deaths and injuries on Tuesday, acknowledged the difficulty of balancing public safety concerns.

"It's always the difficult thing to balance, right? Because folks want public safety. They want people who are driving recklessly or committing other crimes to be taken off the street. That's what the police are charged to do," Johnson said. "I am a repository for all the things that happened in Milwaukee. And I see when our police officers not just apprehend folks, but I see plenty of times, many times where the police call off these chases for a variety of reasons, including when they become dangerous."

The mayor also pushed back on the idea that officers are solely responsible for the danger.

"I think what's also very, very important here is for people to understand that the police aren't chasing themselves. Right? People are; the police are chasing people who are causing death, harm and destruction on the streets of Milwaukee," he said.

Johnson said the city previously tried ending all pursuits entirely, but the results were counterproductive.

"That certainly doesn't work," he said. "We tried that. We saw what the result of that is, and the result of it is a spike in people deciding to drive recklessly... We're not going to go back to doing that."

The mayor said the city will continue pursuing other strategies, including its Vision Zero initiative, to reduce dangerous driving.

Earlier this year, the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission recommended changes to the chase policy, but those recommendations failed to gain support from the Common Council or Police Chief Jeffrey Norman.

As of Tuesday, neither the Milwaukee Police Department nor the Fire and Police Commission had responded to questions about whether they are reconsidering the policy.

For residents like Stark and Velazquez, the protest is part of a longer fight to ensure that bystanders are not the ones paying the price for pursuits.

"How many more innocent people die?" Stark asked. "We're just going to be okay with it?"