A Fort Lauderdale Police officer was suspended after a maneuver behind the wheel that helped save the lives of two young girls — now the city is looking into whether the reprimand was the right move.

It started with a police pursuit of three adult robbery suspects in a car in January, and there were two children in the car. The pursuit ended with a minor crash into a Broward Sheriff’s deputy’s cruiser and a Fort Lauderdale police officer’s patrol car.

In his retelling of what happened, Officer Karl Hirsch said he did what he did because at one point during the pursuit, he saw a child’s foot hanging out of the car and he worried for the safety of the children in the car as it picked up speed.

The minor crash was the third for Hirsch during his first three years with Fort Lauderdale Police. All three happened between March 2022 and January 2023.

Some say in that third crash, which triggered a two-day suspension, Hirsch should’ve been praised, not punished. 

“He should’ve gotten an award, an accommodation, you don’t suspend officers for saving children,” said Eric Schwartzreich, an attorney who often represents law enforcement in legal cases.

In police body-worn camera video, Hirsch is seen swerving toward the robbery suspect’s car, with the two young girls in the backseat. The driver had bailed out and the car was still moving along Northwest 47th Terrace in Tamarac.

Hirsch helped pin the moving car against a BSO deputy’s vehicle, the wall, and his own patrol car to safely bring it to a stop.

“If you have policies that stop LEOs from being able to do their job, we are all not safe,” Schwartzreich said.

In an internal affairs investigation, Fort Lauderdale Police used a matrix to determine whether Hirsch should be penalized. Department policy considered his previous two crashes, the damage to the patrol car — which totaled close to $10,000 — and whether the crash was preventable. 

Investigators determined Hirsch “attempted to utilize a tactic to stop the suspect vehicle which he has not been trained to do.” And while he attempted to do so, he lost control, which inhibited his ability to slow down.

Neither Hirsch, the police union nor Fort Lauderdale Police would speak to NBC6 about what happened. Fort Lauderdale Police policy does state an officer can be terminated if they have four crashes in their patrol car within a year.

The Fort Lauderdale city manager told NBC6 he has asked his staff to look at the police policy to see if it needs to be updated to account for the extenuating circumstances, like what happened in this case.

The city manager even said the review may even include removing the suspension from Hirsch’s record.

Hirsch was suspended for two days over the summer and promptly returned to normal duty.