Contacts for Your Story
Candy Priano, Founder and Executive Director, Voices Insisting on PursuitSAFETY
E-mail: candy.priano@pursuitsafety.org
Phone: 530-343-9754
"I don't believe anyone disagrees that the first cause for these tragedies falls on the drivers who flee. Unfortunately, fleeing drivers don't care about my family's safety—or your family's safety. Therefore, the burden, by necessity, falls on our police officers to keep the public and themselves safe." Click here to view a TV news report. —Candy Priano
Jonathan Farris, Chairman, Board of Directors, Voices Insisting on PursuitSAFETY
E-mail: jon@paulfarris.org
Phone: 612-804-5868
"“We are committed to working for safer vehicular police pursuits, including officer driver training, to keep officers and the public safe. This year we continue to promote educational programs for teens and awareness presentations to citizens and police officers." —Jonathan Farris
Dr. Geoffrey Alpert, Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of South Carolina and an international expert on deadly force issues in law enforcement.
Contact Dr. Alpert at the University of South Carolina.
"Our research has shown the more members of the public know about the dangers of pursuit driving, the less they support it. Public opinion shows high levels of support for cases of serious and violent offenses. However, when citizens are provided with information about pursuits in their areas, the support diminishes."
—Dr. Geoffrey Alpert
Police Chief Tim Fitch, St. Louis County Police Department (Missouri)
Email: Tfitch@stlouisco.com
Phone: 314-615-4260
"We are always reviewing tactics, as well as technology, that will allow us to do our job safer and better." —Chief Tim Fitch
D.P. Van Blaricom, Chief of Police (Ret.)
Bellevue (WA) Police Department
Phone: 425-453-0082
"Officers are strictly prohibited from firing into a crowd, but they are routinely given the latitude to pursue a stolen car through urban streets against traffic control devices until a collision terminates the chase. This has happened over and over again throughout the United States and will continue to occur until chief policymakers assert effective administrative control over when and how vehicular pursuits are to be conducted."
—Ret. Chief D.P. Van Blaricom
Capt. Travis Yates, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Police Department
Contact Capt. Yates at PoliceDriving.com.
Phone: 918-596-1354
"A sound pursuit policy is very important but so many times an agency will ignore the training that should go along with that. Giving an officer a new policy is easy but real training that defines and justifies that policy is a must if that policy is going to be taken serious." —Capt. Travis Yates
