Unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the third degree · as in force on May 31, 2026
§ 270.25 Unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the
third degree.
A person is guilty of unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the third degree when, knowing that he or she has been directed to stop his or her motor vehicle by a uniformed police officer or a marked police vehicle by the activation of either the lights or the lights and siren of such vehicle, he or she thereafter attempts to flee such officer or such vehicle by driving at speeds which equal or exceed twenty-five miles per hour above the speed limit or engaging in reckless driving as defined by section twelve hundred twelve of the vehicle and traffic law.
Unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the third degree is a class A misdemeanor.
After knowing that a uniformed officer or marked police vehicle has directed the driver to stop by lights, or lights and siren, fleeing by driving 25 mph or more over the speed limit or by reckless driving under Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1212 is unlawful fleeing in the third degree, a class A misdemeanor. ★
Marked in the text: penalties, time limits, sums of money. Editorial emphasis added by this edition; it does not appear in the statute as enacted.
This provision appears in Volume 4 — The Court Clerk: Penal Law; Volume 1 — The Court Officer in Plain English; Volume 3 — The Court Officer: Penal Law; Volume 3 — Your Career: Penal Law in Plain English.