By Chris Conley, The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
The number of crashes involving police squad cars is up sharply this year, prompting a renewed emphasis on safe and responsible driving by the Memphis Police Department.
There were 342 crashes involving police vehicles through the middle of November, up from 255 during the same period last year.
In 161 of the cases this year, the officer driving the squad car was ticketed. That’s up from 110 officers given tickets last year.
Legal costs associated with squad car crashes have increased as well. The City of Memphis paid out $123,728 in legal settlements in 1999; $238,170 in 2000 and $370,520 last year. Incomplete figures for this year show the city has paid out about $55,000.
A national expert on the issue said the number of crashes in Memphis “seems definitely high” and may reflect problems with the way officers are trained.
The No. 1 cause of police officer fatalities is traffic accidents, said Dennis Wise, a 31-year police veteran and national president of the American Federation of Police.
Being shot is a distant second, and being struck by a vehicle while on the road is the third most common cause of death, said Wise, a deputy sheriff in Walton County, Fla., who has written on the topic for professional publications.
Most squad car accidents are minor, in the nature of fender benders. But the potential for serious injury and death is high when an officer turns on the siren in answer to a call or joins a high-speed pursuit.
Local officials agree that more training may be needed, especially for officers with a history of driving offenses. Because of concerns about the number of collisions and crashes, Director Walter Crews reactivated the department’s accident review board two years ago. The board, made up of officers and lay people, scrutinizes each squad car accident.
In 1999, two Memphis police officers were killed in crashes involving fleeing suspects. Officer John Robinson died after his cruiser crashed while he chased two robbery suspects on New Allen Road on Dec. 1. In October, his friend Officer Don Overton was killed as he rode to assist other officers pursuing four young shoplifters in a fleeing car.
Last month, 47-year-old Carolyn Banks was critically injured when her car was struck by a squad car near Knight Arnold and Clearbrook. The officer was responding to a call of a burglary in which victims were in the house.
Officers, by law, are allowed to go through a red light or stop sign when necessary, but must first ascertain they can do so without causing a collision. In this case, the officer was ticketed for disregarding a red light and may still face department discipline.
“If the officer is at fault, we treat him just like a civilian,” said traffic Maj. James Krepela. “The officer is charged . . . he’s going to traffic court.”
Banks, who remains in critical condition at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis, is not able to breathe on her own. Her doctors don’t know if she will make a full recovery and return to her job at the University of Memphis and her church, the Morning Star Worldwide Ministries on Park, say family members.
“It’s affecting me and her family,” said Gladys Lee, an aunt. Banks’s mother stays by her bedside.
The officer, Julius Burks, 29, was also injured, though less seriously.
The young officer was “very much concerned . . . more concerned about her than himself,” Lee said.
The family is holding a benefit prayer for Banks at the Morning Star Church at 7 p.m. on Nov. 29.
“The bills don’t stop,” Lee said.
Local police and union officials suggested a number of reasons for the jump in crashes over the past year, including annexation, the extra rainy weather and bad Memphis drivers.
“There are more officers on the street, and the number of calls goes up every day,” said Officer Billy Robbins, a 23-year police veteran and secretary-treasurer of the Memphis Police Association.
The potential for a crash or collision comes with a job that requires patrol officers to be on the road almost continually, said Deputy Director James Bolden.
“It’s difficult to drive thousands of miles and say you are never going to have an accident,” Bolden said. “The number of crashes increases in pursuits . . . and the longer the pursuit goes on, the chances of an accident increase.”
Part of the problem is the general attitude of other Memphis drivers, said professor Richard Janikowski at the University of Memphis, a consultant for the department.
“I am amazed how many Memphis drivers do not defer to patrol cars’ lights and sirens,” Janikowski said.
“The public has a real responsibility in this, too, to drive with caution and defer to the patrol cars.”
Memphis has a good chase policy, one designed to protect officers and civilians from unnecessary danger, Janikowski said.
Officers have to notify a supervisor, usually a lieutenant, just after starting a chase. The supervisor must balance the risks to the public and the officer against the risk of allowing the suspect to escape, before giving an OK to the pursuit.
Officers in a pursuit face the distractions of having to relay information about the speed of the chase, the road and weather conditions, the amount of traffic and why the officer is chasing, Robbins said.
Bolden said the department also has purchased 15 “stop sticks,” devices with a row of spikes that can be laid across a road to slow a fleeing car. The spikes are designed to puncture the tires, causing a slow leak and not a blowout.
But police departments that want to cut squad car accident rates need to focus more attention on training, said Wise. “Training is the key.”
Some police jurisdictions have more intensive training in driving than others. Wise said when he worked in Broward County, Fla., defensive driving training practice in such job skills as backing up, backing down roadways and driving on oil slicks. The department had two simulators that “throw everything in the world” at trainees.
“If you have the training, it all becomes second nature,” Wise said.
Currently, Memphis police recruits undergo 48 hours of driving training in their 21-week training period. They must pass tests in four areas - defensive driving, backward driving, steering and emergency high speed driving - within a certain amount of time.
“It’s one of the priorities . . . probably it should be more of a priority,” said Lt. Scott Wilson of the training academy.