Monday, November 16, 2009

Hot pursuit: Dashcam video fuels Rugby Road chase debate

I was recently quoted in an article about a pursuit in Virginia that raised a lot of questions.

About two months after the August 7 incident, which captured widespread attention after the car’s driver somehow disappeared from a seemingly fatal wreck, a 17-year-old city student was arrested in mid-October, according to Charlottesville spokesperson Ric Barrick, who— in response to a reporter’s request— released a tape of the chase, a 112-second video in which even the police car hits 85mph on the residential road.


This is a very interesting article, and the journalism is top notch. To continue,

Despite fears that crime would explode, Orlando and Orange County, Florida, went ahead in 2004 with what may be the nation’s most restrictive ones. They limit pursuits to those involving people suspected of violent crimes.

John Phillips remembers all too well what spurred the policy.

In 2001, when he was 18 years old, his older sister was a college sophomore preparing to enter a nursing program. Sarah Phillips went out one night with three friends to a movie. After dropping off her friends, she unknowingly found herself on the same road as a police pursuit.


To read the rest, click HERE.