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Our family supports law enforcement, but our experience has
led us to seek changes in our state’s police pursuit law. I have
talked to many officers who support restrictive pursuit policies
because they believe innocent bystanders should not be getting
killed so they can catch “the bad guys.” These officers still do
their job. They just do it in a different way — a safer way.
On November 26, 2002, in deciding a case where a pedestrian
was killed during a pursuit through a California high school
parking lot, the judges of the Fourth Appellate Court expressed
their displeasure with the current state law governing police
pursuits. The judges said, “The adoption of a policy, which may
never be implemented, is cold comfort to innocent bystanders.
We do not know if the policy was followed in this instance, and
that is precisely the point: The police did not have to prove that
they followed their policy. ... We urge the Legislature to revisit
this statute and seriously reconsider the balance between
public entity immunity and public safety. The balance appears
to have shifted too far toward immunity and left public safety
… twisting in the wind.”
In a report for Illinois law enforcement, Retired Washington
State Police Chief Donald Van Blaricom addresses this myth
about police pursuit: “If officers don’t chase, someone else
might get killed.” He responds: “There is no reason to believe a
greater loss would occur from taking less risk,” and the Chief
has been quoted in newspapers, saying, “Citizens do not
volunteer to be rolling roadblocks for police.” For me, Kristie’s
death is real, unlike this “someone else” I keep hearing about.
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And we did not volunteer to be rolling roadblocks for the police
as they chased a 15-year-old girl who took mom's car.
The report was requested because of a Chicago pursuit, where
a 25-year-old resident began the new year of 2003 with
brilliance and promise. This young woman held several degrees
in computer science. She and her husband were expecting their
first child. On January 2, 2003, she was standing on a street
corner in downtown Chicago and was struck and killed by a car
whose occupants were being pursued for stealing a wallet. Her
small lifeless body was thrown 40 feet. (pause) The Chief’s
report includes the following two examples of pursuits with
tragic endings:
* An urban police officer refused to terminate a pursuit, after
being ordered to do so, and the pursued driver hit a young
woman’s car head on. The woman is now a quadriplegic in a
vegetative state with no hope of recovery.
* In pursuit of motorcyclists, a highway patrol officer ran a
stop sign at high-speed and hit another vehicle killing a woman
and her child -- the damage was so extensive that the
investigating city officer had been on the scene for 15 minutes
before he realized that the deceased were his wife and
daughter.
Back home in California, where our state leads the nation in the
number of pursuit-related deaths, Officer Joshua Lancaster and
his wife Heather were looking forward to moving into their new
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home. Instead, Officer Lancaster became an innocent
bystander killed at an intersection as Sanger Police chased a
man driving a stolen truck. In addition to Lancaster, a female
passenger in the truck and her unborn baby were killed.
Ironically, Officer Lancaster was a member of the Fresno
Sheriff’s Department, a law enforcement agency that does not
chase for property crimes, but that policy did not save Officer
Lancaster. Lack of radio communication between Sanger Police
and Fresno was blamed for this deadly pursuit. The Fresno Bee
reported that Officer Lancaster’s family believes Sanger Police
didn’t want to notify the Sheriff’s Department about the chase
because they knew Fresno Sheriff would want to call it off.
Another new year. This time it’s 2004 and this time Fresno Dad
Adam McKinnis, his wife and 15-month-old son were driving to
church when a car being pursued by the CHP crashed into their
car. Adam, also known as Bubba to his many friends, died
seven days later. The reason for the pursuit is in question by
the public: seat belt violation? speeding? Yes, drugs were later
found in the suspect’s car, (pause) but is the Adam McKinnis
family really safer now? Again, Fresno PD and Sheriff’s
Departments both have restrictive pursuit policies, but other
agencies do not, so Fresno residents are not as safe from
deadly pursuits as one might think.
Stockton: A mother drives to Stockton high school to pick up
her two daughters and one of their friends. They never make it
out of the school zone. They are hit by a fellow school mate
fleeing from the police. The three high school girls died at the
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scene; the mom died at the hospital.
And is it not horrific to learn that two teenage girls in San
Diego were walking home from school, only to be killed as a car
fleeing from police rides the sidewalk?
I am here today because I believe you will listen to me as I
address the issue of public safety in police pursuit. I would not
waste my time talking to fleeing suspects. They do not care
about my loss, and quite frankly, I do not expect suspects who
flee from police to care.
But I do expect and truly believe that the police do care about
my Kristie’s death, and Desiree’s, Ashley’s, Bernice’s and
Christina’s deaths in Stockton, Quillar’s in Long Beach, Dee’s in
Desert Hot Springs, Scott’s, Ted’s and Mariline’s in three
separate pursuit-related crashes in San Francisco, Jessica’s
death in Oxnard, Adam’s in Fresno, Aaron’s and Jacob’s in Los
Angeles, William’s in Oakland and Gregory’s a resident of
Modesto and Jody’s a resident of Grass Valley, both killed in
Oakland, Eula’s -- a Texas resident killed in Escondido and her
52-year-old friend Dorthia who is now confined to a nursing
home in Texas because of her injuries, Myra’s death in
Oceanside, and 4-year-old Evelyn, who was holding her
mother’s hand at a bus stop in Los Angeles when she was killed
in a pursuit-related crash ... and 7-year-old Korina’s death in
Escondido, and the more famous Harley, a three-week old baby
who lost his arm in Sylmar. If you think this is a long list of
names, think again because this list represents only a small
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fraction of the number of innocent people killed in California
pursuits in the last couple years. (Pause) And I do not expect
fleeing suspects to care about the deaths of Cpl. Tyler Pinchot,
Officer Terry Bennett or Officer Lancaster or Deputy Sheriff
Dennis Ray McEd-erry, (pause) all these officers were killed in
2003. In a few of these pursuit-related deaths that took either
the life of an innocent bystander or that of an officer, the
fleeing suspects were not even caught. In our case, as I was
being told that my innocent daughter was going to die, the
fleeing suspect went home with her mother.
And I want to add that we support stricter penalties for those
who flee, but stricter penalties alone will not solve this problem
because the “young, dumb and/or stupid” will still flee. It is
the police the people rely upon to serve and protect all of us -even innocent bystanders.
Public awareness and pressure paved the way for safer weapon
and firearm policies; so eventually, the way officers conduct
pursuits will change. If law enforcement does not make the
change on its own, the people must — and will — turn to their
legislators. (pause)
In 2003, LAPD Chief William Bratton rectifed policy weaknesses
in his jurisdiction. Prompted by the baby who lost his arm. But
doing it one agency at time is a slow and tedious process and
people are dying now. Here’s what I’m talking about: Last
month, a deadly pursuit over a stolen car in San Francisco
ended with the death of an innocent woman. Now, the San
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Francisco PD will restrict pursuits. But sadly, another person
had to die for that to happen.
Of major concern is that the CHP and some legislators see no
need for change even after these deadly pursuits in school
zones, high school parking lots, and residential neighborhoods.
Addressing this concern is a Fresno Bee columnist. After the
death of Adam McKinnis, he writes: “The CHP is in denial about
another myth of high-speed chases — they won’t have another
chance to catch lawbreakers. Truth is, with good police work,
the CHP can find them another day. Other agencies do, because
they train officers to think that way.”
And on Jan. 20, 2004, the Temecula PD did just that. The news
headline read: Police Quit Chase and Still Make Arrest. In the
story Lt. Chris Davis said: "I would like to think it would have
been cancelled regardless. It would have been a poor decision
to continue to chase the vehicle when we could identify the
driver. Any time speeding or driving conditions appear to make
the risk to the public greater than the need to apprehend the
suspect, we'll discontinue the pursuit."
As more and more citizens become educated about pursuit,
they are saying, “Enough is enough.” Every day I recall my
son’s face when he told me, “Mom, the last thing I remember
was Kristie laughing.” The last thing I remember was hearing
both my children laughing. I smiled and looked out the window
into the darkness, thinking I was the luckiest mom.
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As a citizen I am pursuing justice because, as my mom said,
“Two wrongs do not make it right.” Today I say, “When it
comes to police pursuit, two wrongs do not make it right. They
make it deadly.”our speaches. She said we could go