A different standard of negligence is applied in accidents involving police vehicles. If a police vehicle, involved in emergency operation, is involved in an accident, the officer will only be found responsible if they exhibit a reckless disregard for the safety of others. The main case on this rule is Criscione v. City of New York (97 NY2d 152 [2001]). Criscione involved a collision between a police cruiser and a civilian vehicle that occurred after the officers in the cruiser had received a radio dispatch to respond to a 911 call of a domestic dispute, which was neither considered criminal in nature, nor classified by the police radio code transmitted to the cruiser as an emergency.
In Criscione, the Court of Appeals held that the police cruiser involved was an "authorized emergency vehicle," and that it was engaged in an "emergency operation" because it was "responding to…[a] police call"
