PursuitWatch quoted in Ottawa Citizen

OTTAWA - A U.S. police pursuit watchdog organization says police should never have pursued the suspected cigarette smuggler who ended up killing a senior couple from upstate New York and himself in a violent collision after a high-speed chase on Cornwall Island Friday night.

"If someone is suspected of anything less than a violent crime, then it is not worth the risk to the officers and the public to pursue the suspect," said John Phillips, president of PursuitWatch.org, a national association of citizens and police officers that lobbies for safer police pursuits.

Read the entire piece HERE.

Monday 11/24: WFTV @ 6PM

I'll be appearing as part of a story about the PIT maneuver on the Orlando ABC network, WFTV, this evening at 6 PM. Check back for more updates.

OnStar's Stolen Vehicle Slowdown Released

Below is the press release for OnStar's Stolen Vehicle Slowdown technology. This is a good start, but considering it will only be an available option on a very small percentage of the vehicles out there... A smart, safe, and responsible pursuit policy must be in place in departments around the country.

OnStar Launches Stolen Vehicle Slowdown®

New technology will assist public safety officials
in OnStar stolen vehicle cases, help save lives



DETROIT (October 9, 2008, 12:01 a.m.) – General Motors (GM) and OnStar today launched Stolen Vehicle Slowdown on more than 1 million model year 2009 GM vehicles in the U.S. and Canada. Stolen Vehicle Slowdown is the latest enhancement to OnStar’s Stolen Vehicle Assistance service and enables OnStar to further help law enforcement in the recovery of subscribers’ stolen vehicles, while helping to reduce fatalities and injuries resulting from police chases. Working with law enforcement and utilizing its unique built-in technology, OnStar can remotely send a signal that interacts with the vehicle’s engine, gradually slowing it down, aiding in a safe recovery.



“No other automaker provides its’ customers the peace of mind that OnStar Stolen Vehicle Slowdown does,” said Chet Huber, OnStar president. “Our subscribers have told us they don’t want their vehicle to be the instrument of harm.”



National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics show 30,000 police chases occur each year, resulting in approximately 300 deaths. Stolen Vehicle Slowdown will help take high speed pursuits out of the equation, as well as the probability that a subscriber’s stolen vehicle will be crashed during a chase.



“Prior to Stolen Vehicle Slowdown, there were only three ways to stop a police chase; the officer elects to terminate the chase, the vehicle being pursued decides to stop or in the worse case scenario there is a crash,” said David Hiller, national vice president, Fraternal Order of Police. “With OnStar Stolen Vehicle Slowdown we now have an additional and obviously far safer method. We congratulate GM and OnStar for working with law enforcement as they developed this product.”



GM will integrate the capability on more than 1 million model year 2009 vehicles through OnStar’s newest generation of hardware, Generation 8. Chevrolet, GM’s largest division, will lead the effort with over half a million Chevrolet vehicles equipped with Stolen Vehicle Slowdown.



How Stolen Vehicle Slowdown Works

Once an OnStar subscriber has reported a stolen vehicle to law enforcement, he or she can call OnStar and request Stolen Vehicle Assistance. An OnStar advisor will use advanced Global Positioning Satellite technology to pinpoint the exact location of the stolen vehicle which will be provided only to law enforcement.



Once law enforcement officials have the stolen vehicle in a clear line of sight to know conditions are safe, they can request that the OnStar advisor remotely slow it down. OnStar will then send a signal to the vehicle’s engine, reducing engine power and gradually slowing the vehicle to idle speed while all other vehicle systems remain fully operational including power steering and brakes.



Because involvement from local law enforcement agencies is key to the safe execution of Stolen Vehicle Slowdown, OnStar conducted a 25-city public safety outreach tour across the United States to familiarize the public safety community with this revolutionary service, and let them experience the technology first-hand.



Subscribers who prefer not to have the Stolen Vehicle Slowdown capability on their vehicle may contact OnStar to opt out of the service at any time. The rest of their OnStar services will remain active and unaffected.



OnStar has offered Stolen Vehicle Assistance services with GPS location since 1996. It now receives approximately 700 Stolen Vehicle Assistance requests from subscribers each month, and has helped in 38,000 requests over the past twelve years. OnStar’s suite of services also includes Automatic Crash Response, Emergency Services, Remote Door Unlock, Roadside Assistance, Crisis Assist, OnStar Turn-by-Turn Navigation, Hands Free Calling and OnStar Vehicle Diagnostics.



OnStar’s Stolen Vehicle Slowdown is available exclusively on GM vehicles in the U.S. and Canada. The service is included in the OnStar subscription that comes standard for one year on eligible MY 2009 OnStar-equipped vehicles. For more information regarding OnStar’s services, please visit www.onstar.com.

OS: After pursuit, 2 arrested in carjacking

From the Orlando Sentinel:

Authorities arrested two men who carjacked an elderly man in Daytona Beach Shores on Sunday afternoon. The carjacking took place about 1 p.m. Sunday after their unsuccessful robbery attempt at a store in the same city. The men tried to flee the scene. A chase ensued on State Road 100 with Flagler County police. The men tried to make an abrupt U-turn, but their vehicle spun and was struck by a police car. The suspects were apprehended in Bunnell. The suspects have been identified as Craig William Miles, 26, of Braddock Lane in Daytona Beach, and his passenger, Jerry Edwin Royce, 53, of Holly Hill. No injuries were reported. Royce was released after deputies determined he wasn't involved in the crime. Miles is charged with fleeing and evading a police officer. Additional charges against Miles are pending, authorities said.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/volusia/orl-b3court13_108oct13,0,4243975.story

The Crookhook...

I received an email a month or so ago that somehow got buried below others. Anyway, it was from someone suggesting I take a look at the Crookhook, a devise mounted on the front of police cars to latch on a suspects car which would theoretically prevent the opportunity for a suspect to flee.

You can read about Crookhook and even view a video HERE.

Our stance remains that we salute the efforts of all inventors, engineers and regular citizens that are developing methods to end police pursuits. However, hope of ending pursuits one day does not take the place of a clearly defined and safe pursuit policy.

The Huntsville Times

The Huntsville Times published a story concerning the death of Darren Spurlock, an innocent bystander who left behind his wife and children age 6 and 3.

John Harriss Phillips, president of the Florida-based PursuitWatch.org, said an officer pursuing someone who has not committed a violent crime is akin to "shooting a gun in a crowded room. Sometimes, nothing will happen. Other times, you'll hit other people."

Phillips' interest in chases is personal. His sister, Sarah Phillips, died in 2001 in a crash with a fleeing vehicle in Orange County, Fla. Sarah's father, the late Jim Phillips, started PursuitWatch with the goal of pushing safer and smarter police pursuit policies. John Phillips took the helm of PursuitWatch when his father died.

"I think a lot of times, the negative perception is that if we don't pursue, the bad guys get away," Phillips told The Times by phone. Phillips questions the need for pursuit if police have a tag number or the identity of the suspect and there's no imminent danger to the public.

You can continue reading the story HERE.

PursuitWatch cited in New Zealand... I think.

In an article posted on Scoop, an independent New Zealand news company, the author quotes Dr. Alpert (friend of PursuitWatch) and I think... Us:

U.S. Pursuit expert Dr Geoff Alpert notes that under twenty percent of high speed chases are triggered by major offences in some States, and 1-2% typically result in death/s in regions with lax policies (AAA Foundation report).

The reason NZ's risk may be even higher is our extremely heavy Police presence - combined with the pressure of "performance measures" to be met on each shift. Quotas have made Police bounty hunters and that has had many serious ramifications for road safety.

Restrictive chase policies don't increase anarchy

Studies consistently show pursuits involve drug or drink drivers 1/2 the time, but Pursuit Watch advises pursuing impaired drivers is unwise.

Where policies have been upgraded in the interests of public safety in the U.S.A. road carnage has decreased, and done so in the absence of any reduction in conviction rates for crimes.

For more, go HERE.

Capt. Travis Yates: Driver training and the typical police agency

The following is an excerpt from an article written by Capt. Travis Yates at Policeone.com. Yates, as well as Ron Kelley are friends of PursuitWatch.org.

Deputy Ron Kelley, a member of the International Law Enforcement Educators & Trainers Association and law enforcement driving instructor says it best when he discusses the “Three C’s”.

“Just because something has not happened, doesn't mean it won't in the future. This creates three human actions. We become complacent, careless and comfortable. All three are a path to tragedy.”

Is that tragedy waiting at your agency? In seminars, I often discuss the typical police agency:

• A pursuit or emergency run ends tragic.
• The media becomes involved and looks into the issue.
• Concerned citizens express their concern.
• The pursuit policy is changed in reaction to the third party involvement.
• Driver training is implemented.

The above scenario will either sound familiar to you or one day it likely will.

Unfortunately, the scenario mentioned above tends to be the archetype for strengthening a departments pursuit policy. I would venture out to say that 90% of the media requests I get start out along the lines of, "Hi Mr. Phillips, we had an incident here in ABC when XYZ did this."

To read the entire article, click HERE.

100 mile chase... For failure to signal a lane change?!?

A chase that lasted 100 miles, sometimes at speeds exceeding 100 MPH occurred last Thursday in Missouri. Commentary isn't necessary here, so I'll just post a few excerpts from the Daily Guide story...

Thursday morning was an ordinary day for Officer Derin Richardson when he noticed a Chevrolet Cavalier with two occupants, a man and a woman, that changed lanes on Interstate 44 about 10:34 a.m. without signaling near eastbound mile marker 159 and then ran off the roadway briefly. The Cavalier got off at Exit 161, turned onto Highway Z, and stopped in the parking lot of the Cenex gas station.
Richardson got out of his patrol car and began to walk toward Cavalier. Rather than providing his license and registration, the driver, later identified as Anthony Cesar Hervas, 20, of Chicago, gunned the car’s accelerator and fled.

Next:

St. Robert police have ordered stop sticks for their patrol cars, but Gettys said his department’s officers haven’t yet gone through training to use them and they can’t be used until that training takes place. Multiple efforts were made to use stop sticks to puncture Hervas’ tires but all failed until his Cavalier got several hundred yards across the Franklin County line into St. Louis County.

To continue:

While it’s no more possible to have officers train with 100 mph chases than it is to have officers experience bullets being shot past their heads, Gettys said the hundreds of hours per week spent by officers behind the wheel gives them an intensive familiarity with their vehicle and how it handles, and that can be crucial in a pursuit. “Just driving on a daily basis, their accustomed to driving,” Gettys said. “We’re officers but we’re also human beings so we’re always going to get excited, but our training prepares us for that.”

You can read the entire story HERE.

Police Pursue Seatbelt Violator in Houston

Early Monday morning, the Houston Police Department began pursuing a silver, two-door car through the streets of Houston at dangerously high speeds. The offense? The driver wasn't wearing his seatbelt.

Beginning in North Houston, the chase, which lasted approximately thirty minutes, moved through the Medical Center and the Galleria area - both areas of high pedestrian traffic. At points, the driver of the silver, two-door attempted to evade police by driving on the wrong side of the road. The chase continued on surface streets for sometime before eventually moving onto the freeway. There, the driver weaved in an out of traffic and drove on the shoulder. The chase ended when the suspect swerved, barely missing another car, and careened into a guardrail.

We at PursuitWatch believe this chase to be completely unnecessary. At the time the chase was authorized, the officers thought they were pursuing a suspect for a mere seatbelt violation - hardly warranting possible harm to innocent bystanders. PursuitWatch will be watching this story closely, and we will provide more details as they become available.


Video of the pursuit can be seen here: http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou080623_ac_sloopchase.2f27177b.html