High Speed Police Pursuits

I have been in many pursuits, either as the primary, secondary, or one of the many following the pursuit to assist with traffic control. I have assisted with helping catch the suspect(s) fleeing the scene after they exit the car, or to recover the evidence that is being thrown out of the car while being pursued. There is nothing more dangerous, and exhilarating than a high-speed police pursuit. I wanted to tell the story of this pursuit, as it changed the way I felt about high-speed police pursuits.

I had about three years on the job, and was in my forth assignment (patrol on probation, the gang unit, traffic, and back on patrol off of probation). I was working with a veteran officer, and I was driving that day. My partner had been in a plain clothes auto theft assignment for 10 years prior to coming back to patrol, and it was his second day back in uniform. Obviously, a lot had changed, and he was a little rusty. What he wasn't rusty on, was how to spot a stolen car from a mile away.

We were in a bad part of town, known for narcotics and stolen cars. He spots a car at quite a distance and tells me that it is stolen. I eagerly jump at the opportunity to use his skills to catch a bad guy and speed up towards the car. As the car notices that I am coming up his rear at a high rate of speed, he accelerates and takes the first right turn. He turns right again at the next intersection. He is now accelerating and I am keeping up. My partner, remember how rusty he was being back in patrol, freezes on the radio. He can't talk... I take the microphone out of his hand and start to broadcast out pursuit; I had just put on my lights and sirens.

I am now broadcasting, something that my partner should be doing, the basic 4. Who we are (2ADAM15). Where we are (17th and Toberman). What do we have (a stolen car). And what do we need (back-up and an airship). I am keeping up with the suspect, a male White, and his passenger, a female White. They are in an older model Toyota pick-up truck. We are now in a long straight-away. When the next intersection comes up, the suspect starts to make a left turn, but then decides to continue to go straight. As his truck went back and forth, he actually goes up on two wheels for a couple of seconds. At this time, I see seven people standing on the corner of the intersection, right where he is attempting something only the "Duke Boys" should be doing in the General Lee.

I see the shear horror on their faces as he is about to flip over, careen right into them, and either severely injure or kill them. He then gets back on all fours, and continues in the original direction that he was going. I continue after him and I go by the pedestrians thinking that either they are lucky, or he was just a great driver. To this day I think that they were lucky that day.

I continue broadcasting as we go into another area of the city. I ask the RTO to broadcast our pursuit on the other areas frequency, which they already had done. The truck makes two left turns, stops at the entrance to the freeway, lets the woman out, and the continues up the freeway on ramp. The woman starts running in the other direction. Since we were still alone, we continued after the driver in the Toyota. He goes up the on ramp and stops half way up. He gets out and leaves the truck in neutral. The truck starts rolling backwards as I was getting out of the police car. I quickly closed my door as the truck hit the curb and comes to rest... Right where I would have been standing....

Now the next part you are not going to believe, but I am going to tell it anyways. I am not exaggerating in any way, shape, or form. The suspect jumps off of the freeway on ramp. Thirty-feet- down (we later measured). He falls to the ground, gets right back up, and starts running away. I look at my partner, and he looks at me. We both shake our head in disbelief. We also know that either one of us would break our legs trying to jump and follow after him. I continued to broadcast what happened and where the suspect was running. Another patrol car was quick to drive underneath the freeway on ramp after him. What they broadcasted next astonished both my partner and I. Our friendly suspect had ran across ten lanes of freeway traffic. It was a Sunday, so traffic was light, but going at normal California freeway speeds given the conditions. I couldn't believe it. All of that, and he gets away.

Since he had crossed over a freeway, there were no units in the vicinity to head him off on the other side since they were all now getting to our location. I was furious. The woman, gone. The man, gone. All I had left was this beat up old truck. Talk about defeat. Did I mention I was furious. I'm sure there are some out there that will say that we should've jumped. Next time you're in that situation, go ahead, jump... I like my legs.

So, the car was indeed stolen. There were no fingerprints good enough to get a hit in the system, and our guy is in the wind. Would you believe that we found methamphetamine in the car as well. I was shocked myself.

The whole point to this story, besides my hurt feelings, was the seven people that could've died that day. Granted, a stolen car is a felony. People who usually drive in stolen cars are not the greatest of citizens. But ultimately, it is property. Innocent lives should not be taken to justify a property crime. I am not saying that I am against high-speed police pursuits... I am saying that every time after this pursuit, that I found myself in another (southern California is the pursuit capital of the world), I would weigh the risk versus reward.

Of course, three years later I found myself in pursuit of an attempt murder suspect, in the rain. All bets were off on this one as he had tried to kill his mother the night before with a meat cleaver... He was going back to her house to finish the project when we got to him. We would have followed him until his or our wheels fell off the car, no matter how dangerous. We caught him about ten minutes into the pursuit, and arrested him for attempt murder!

As you sit at home and watch your favorite pursuit videos, or happen to catch one live, remember that there is an officer not only thinking of himself, but of others.