Sunday, July 27, 2008
By JOHN PECK
Times Staff Writer john.peck@htimes.com
20 times moreinnocent drivers killed than cops

Innocent motorists such as NASA engineer Darren Spurlock are 20 times more likely to be killed than the officer when a police chase goes awry.

From 2000 through 2006, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than 2,500 people were killed during police pursuits. Of those, 40 were in the police vehicle, 1,606 were in the chased vehicle, 785 were in another vehicle, and just under 100 were pedestrians.

Alabama recorded 72 police-chase fatalities in those years. Of those, none were in the police car, 59 were in the fleeing vehicle, nine were in another vehicle and four were on foot.

PursuitWatch, a national police chase watchdog organization, says 14,000 people are injured each year in police chases. According to its research, 70,000 pursuits are launched each year with 28,000 resulting in wrecks.

Data on police chases often conflict because pursuit reporting is voluntary for many police agencies. Also, many victims die days after a report is filed, and their deaths may not be attributed to a chase.

Huntsville police only recently began reporting all pursuits. Before, logs were filled out only if there were injuries or property damage.

Whether to pursue a suspect poses a dilemma for officers, who must weigh the hazards of a chase against the risk of letting a suspect get away.

Police were chasing two street-level drug suspects on May 30 when their car slammed into Spurlock's on Redstone Arsenal. Spurlock, 39, had only been in his NASA job for two weeks when the accident occurred. He previously had worked for the Boeing Co. Spurlock left behind his wife, Kelly, and two sons, ages 6 and 3.

A federal grand jury indicted the getaway driver, Valorie Keil Cox, on a second-degree murder charge. Prosecutors accuse her of driving in a "manner with extreme indifference to human life." She pleaded not guilty Thursday.

John Harris 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.

"Where we come from is, do the officers believe the fleeing car is a suspect in a violent crime like murder, rape, armed robbery? If that is not the case, it's not worth the risk to the public and officers involved to pursue," he said.

Geoffrey Albert is a criminologist at the University of South Carolina and one of the nation's leading experts on pursuits. Alpert contends cops shouldn't chase a suspect unless a violent felony is involved.

But studies show violent acts rarely trigger police chases.

In a 2000 study funded by an arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, Alpert's research team examined 144 chases and found that driving a stolen car - cited by 32 percent of drivers who were caught - was the most common reason for running from police. Other leading causes: 28 percent were driving with suspended licenses and 22 percent were driving while intoxicated.

Huntsville Police Chief Henry Reyes agreed most motorists who try to outrun police aren't doing so because of serious offenses.

"They're driving with a suspended license, or we have a warrant for their arrest for a traffic citation, things like that," Reyes said.

"They simply don't consider the risk," said Huntsville Public Safety Director Rex Reynolds.

Alpert said the biggest myth is that if police don't have a chase policy, everyone is going to run. Another mistaken idea, he said, is that people run because "there's a dead body in every trunk."

Phillips said he doubts anyone contemplating a speeding getaway is "sitting on the fence" waiting to see whether a department has a strong pursuit policy.

Andrew Clarke, a Memphis lawyer involved in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case in a police pursuit challenge, said police should show restraint before starting pursuit.

In 2001, Victor Harris, then 19, became a quadriplegic in a wreck caused by a Georgia deputy's ramming Harris' fleeing car. The court supported law enforcement's argument that running a fleeing motorist off the road was certain to eliminate the risk to the public.

The job of law enforcement in pursuits, said Clarke, is to "protect the public depending on the severity of the crime that precipitated the chase."

Officers sometimes get "tunnel vision" when making the split-second decision whether to pursue, he said.

"Their decision-making process is tough when filled with that much adrenaline and contempt for the person fleeing," Clarke said. "Many times, the innocent parties' safety is not the primary consideration."