TheLedger.com has a story today on police pursuits, and in particular a pursuit involving LPD units last October following a downtown bank robbery. Once you are online at The Ledger, you can also see video clips from police in-car video cameras that captured the pursuit.
This lengthy pursuit ended on Hwy 98 North when a patrol unit made contact with the fleeing vehicle and turned it on its side. The now sideways truck slid into another vehicle on the roadway before coming to rest. Two subjects from the truck were arrested and charged with the armed robbery. There were no injuries resulting from this pursuit or its ending.
A Pursuit Review Board found the pursuit to be within policy guidelines. You can read a copy of the Board's summary report here. The Board did make two recommendations for policy reviews which are underway at this time:
1) Review the feasibility of implementing a policy change to train for PIT maneuvers, and;
2) Review alternative tactics for deploying stop sticks so as to minimize the risk to officers who must stand along the edge of the roadway as a pursuit heads toward them in order to properly deploy the strip of sharp spikes.
We will keep the community updated on these policy reviews as they are completed.
This pursuit once again draws our attention to the difficult balance between the threat to society posed by a fleeing criminal and the risks to the public that come from a pursuit traveling on the roads. When should officers quit chasing armed bank robbery suspects instead of engaging in a pursuit?
In our opinion, the officers who participated in this incident and the supervisors who oversaw the entire operation were extremely cognizant of the risks that the pursuit posed to the community and balanced it with the potential harm associated with letting armed robbers go. The officers faced numerous challenges throughout the pursuit and made difficult decisions in split seconds that can be second guessed much later. Thier courage in the face of danger is a credit to their professionalism, training, and experience.
As always we welcome your comments, whether you are for or against motor vehicle pursuits. Let us know what you think about police chases.
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