By Glenn Smith
The Post and Courier
CHARLESTON, S.C. — To chase or not to chase? That’s been a burning question for police across the country after a number of high-speed car pursuits have ended in grievous injury to officers, suspects and innocent motorists.
North Charleston police are the latest to take up the discussion in the wake of some recent car chases that ended in wrecks.
Though no serious injuries resulted from the incidents, Police Chief Jon Zumalt said he thinks it’s worthwhile to take a look at the number of high-speed pursuits in the city, how many officers were involved and whether any policy changes or training are needed.
“I just want to make sure we are as safe as possible,” he said.
It’s a debate occurring across the nation, as law enforcement agencies weigh the benefits of pursuing suspects against the risks posed to citizens who get in the way.
Each year, police pursuits claim hundreds of lives across the nation. In 2009, the latest year for which figures were available, 302 people were killed nationwide as a result of police chases, including three in South Carolina. Of those who died, 96 were bystanders, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Geoff Alpert, a University of South Carolina criminology professor and an expert in police pursuits, said the national trend among police departments is to limit chases to incidents involving violent crimes. It is much easier to set those boundaries ahead of time than have officers try to weigh the relative merits of a chase in the midst of a heated situation in the field, he said.
“For me, the line in the sand is violent crime,” he said.
Alpert helped Charleston police revise their pursuit procedures in 2005 after a highly publicized wreck on James Island that occurred during a chase. A half-dozen cruisers were in pursuit of carjacking suspect in a stolen pickup when the suspect slammed into the driver’s side of a Honda Accord, critically injuring a 22-year-old medical student.
Charleston police had already limited vehicle chases to violent felonies, including murder, kidnapping, robbery and rape. The new policy requires officers to get permission from a supervisor before, rather than during, a high-speed pursuit.
Several area departments, including North Charleston police, let officers and their supervisors decide which crimes warrant a pursuit. Officers are instructed, however, to consider such factors as weather, time of day, road conditions and the possible risks to the public.
The topic of police pursuits resurfaced this week when a woman raised concerns during a North Charleston community forum about a chase she had witnessed in her neighborhood. Zumalt told her that he has struggled over the need for some chases and that he didn’t think some were worth it.
Zumalt later declined to identify or discuss specific pursuits that had him concerned, saying he wanted to thoroughly review the incidents first.
A few recent incidents, however, have drawn public attention.
On Aug. 27, North Charleston police chased a black Charger into downtown Charleston after the driver refused to pull over for a traffic stop resulting from the car’s headlights being off. The pursuit exceeded 100 mph on Interstate 26 and ended with the Charger crashing into a parked vehicle on San Souci Street, police said.
About a week earlier, another man crashed his car into a utility pole on Rivers Avenue after a domestic dispute led to a police pursuit.
On Friday, a robbery suspect traveling the wrong way on the U.S. Highway 52 connector crashed into two cars while trying to avoid North Charleston police. Officers had tried to corner the suspect after the holdup, but officers were not in pursuit of his car when it pulled into the eastbound lanes and wrecked, injuring the suspect and another driver, police said.
Alpert said he could not weigh in on the first two incidents without more details, but Friday’s encounter with the robbery suspect likely would have been handled the same way by many other police departments, he said. The incident involved a violent crime and was called off when danger presented itself. “That one followed the national trend,” he said.
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