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Laws drafted to put brakes on cop chases
Laws drafted to put brakes on cop chases
Lawmakers, police grapple with curbing rising high-speed chases throughout California
Lawmakers, police grapple with curbing rising high-speed chases throughout California
Article Last Updated: 03/07/2005 07:39:55 AM
Laws drafted to put brakes on cop chases
Lawmakers, police grapple with curbing rising high-speed chases throughout California
By Don Thompson
SACRAMENTO — On any given day in California, a television station helicopter hovers over a speeding car that pinballs through traffic on the freeway below with police cars in hot pursuit.
More and more often, however, this staple of television news and police procedure has brought death and serious injuries. According to the California Highway Patrol, the number of chases has grown by the hundreds each of the last three years for which statistics are available: 5,895 in 2001; 6,337 in 2002; 7,171 in 2003.
Fifty-one people died in 2003 as a result, or nearly one each week. Of the dead, 18 were
not involved in the pursuit, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Last month, University of California, Berkeley, graduate student Jie Wang joined the list of the seriously injured
after a motorist fleeing an Albany police officer ran a red light and crashed into Wangs car. The 24-year-old Wang remains in a coma.
Californias numbers consistently far exceed any other state. Compared to the 51 California deaths in 2003, Texas had 33, including nine innocents; North Carolina had 23 deaths, eight of them did not involve motorists; Florida had 21 deaths, just one involved an innocent motorist.
While some cities including Los Angeles have limited chases,Florida and Mississippi last year enacted laws boosting penalties for fleeing drivers, similar to what California law enforcement is now proposing this year as the California Legislature is set to start again attempts to change the way law enforcement pursue potential criminals.
Law enforcement groups want to increase penalties for fleeing drivers, while a bipartisan group of legislators
is pushing a proposal that would include penalties for police who recklessly pursue drivers.
I want something that is actually going to save lives, said state Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley, who said at least 35 people have died since his bill that would have limited police immunity in accidents from high-speed chases was defeated last year.
Probably the worst way to catch someone is by chasing them, Aanestad said. We already have some of the strictest penalties in the nation. ... When people flee, it wasnt on their mind.
The police-sponsored bill would promote educating drivers about the stiffer criminal penalties and that they — not the police officer — are liable if anyone else is injured or killed. And it would make bystanders eligible for monetary compensation from the states victims fund.
But law enforcement
will adamantly oppose stripping away officers legal immunity, said California State Sheriffs Association Legislative Director Nick Warner and California Police Chiefs Association President Bill Brown.
Since 1987, police have had what a state appeals court in 2002 termed a get-out-of-liability-free law even if police violate their own departments pursuit policy.
We have been challenged by the court of appeals: You, Legislature, go back and fix this,'" said Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, who is teaming with Aanestad in a bipartisan reform effort.
But Brown, a 27-year veteran and police chief in Lompoc for the last 10 years, said ending police immunity now would pass the liability on to the police and ultimately to the taxpayer, rather than to the individual who is really responsible.
That
would essentially end all police pursuits, Brown said, encouraging suspects to flee.
Aanestad is promising to craft a bill in cooperation with law enforcement, national experts and families of innocent victims of high-speed pursuits.
Romero is co-sponsoring that bill but also carrying the police proposal as a beginning point of discussion.
I think there is much that needs to be changed, she said. I want to see as much teeth as possible; I want there to be accountability, even it might be politically unrealistic to end police immunity.
Aanestad is naming his bill after Kristie Priano, a 15-year-old Chico honor student who was killed in January 2002 when her familys minivan was struck by an unlicensed 15-year-old who took her mothers car without permission. Candy Priano argues police knew where the fleeing driver lived, so there was
no need for the pursuit that killed her daughter.
I blame the people who flee. (But) people who flee do not care about anyones safety, so the burden of protecting innocent bystanders by necessity falls on the police, Priano said in remarks prepared for a news conference today before a Public Safety Committee information hearing Wednesday.
On the Net:
Read SB1015, SB718 and SB719 at http://www.sen.ca.gov
Kristies Web site: http://www.kristieslaw.org
PursuitWatch: http://pursuitwatch.org
Laws drafted to put brakes on cop chases
Lawmakers, police grapple with curbing rising high-speed chases throughout California
By Don Thompson
SACRAMENTO — On any given day in California, a television station helicopter hovers over a speeding car that pinballs through traffic on the freeway below with police cars in hot pursuit.
More and more often, however, this staple of television news and police procedure has brought death and serious injuries. According to the California Highway Patrol, the number of chases has grown by the hundreds each of the last three years for which statistics are available: 5,895 in 2001; 6,337 in 2002; 7,171 in 2003.
Fifty-one people died in 2003 as a result, or nearly one each week. Of the dead, 18 were
not involved in the pursuit, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Last month, University of California, Berkeley, graduate student Jie Wang joined the list of the seriously injured
after a motorist fleeing an Albany police officer ran a red light and crashed into Wangs car. The 24-year-old Wang remains in a coma.
Californias numbers consistently far exceed any other state. Compared to the 51 California deaths in 2003, Texas had 33, including nine innocents; North Carolina had 23 deaths, eight of them did not involve motorists; Florida had 21 deaths, just one involved an innocent motorist.
While some cities including Los Angeles have limited chases,Florida and Mississippi last year enacted laws boosting penalties for fleeing drivers, similar to what California law enforcement is now proposing this year as the California Legislature is set to start again attempts to change the way law enforcement pursue potential criminals.
Law enforcement groups want to increase penalties for fleeing drivers, while a bipartisan group of legislators
is pushing a proposal that would include penalties for police who recklessly pursue drivers.
I want something that is actually going to save lives, said state Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley, who said at least 35 people have died since his bill that would have limited police immunity in accidents from high-speed chases was defeated last year.
Probably the worst way to catch someone is by chasing them, Aanestad said. We already have some of the strictest penalties in the nation. ... When people flee, it wasnt on their mind.
The police-sponsored bill would promote educating drivers about the stiffer criminal penalties and that they — not the police officer — are liable if anyone else is injured or killed. And it would make bystanders eligible for monetary compensation from the states victims fund.
But law enforcement
will adamantly oppose stripping away officers legal immunity, said California State Sheriffs Association Legislative Director Nick Warner and California Police Chiefs Association President Bill Brown.
Since 1987, police have had what a state appeals court in 2002 termed a get-out-of-liability-free law even if police violate their own departments pursuit policy.
We have been challenged by the court of appeals: You, Legislature, go back and fix this,'" said Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, who is teaming with Aanestad in a bipartisan reform effort.
But Brown, a 27-year veteran and police chief in Lompoc for the last 10 years, said ending police immunity now would pass the liability on to the police and ultimately to the taxpayer, rather than to the individual who is really responsible.
That
would essentially end all police pursuits, Brown said, encouraging suspects to flee.
Aanestad is promising to craft a bill in cooperation with law enforcement, national experts and families of innocent victims of high-speed pursuits.
Romero is co-sponsoring that bill but also carrying the police proposal as a beginning point of discussion.
I think there is much that needs to be changed, she said. I want to see as much teeth as possible; I want there to be accountability, even it might be politically unrealistic to end police immunity.
Aanestad is naming his bill after Kristie Priano, a 15-year-old Chico honor student who was killed in January 2002 when her familys minivan was struck by an unlicensed 15-year-old who took her mothers car without permission. Candy Priano argues police knew where the fleeing driver lived, so there was
no need for the pursuit that killed her daughter.
I blame the people who flee. (But) people who flee do not care about anyones safety, so the burden of protecting innocent bystanders by necessity falls on the police, Priano said in remarks prepared for a news conference today before a Public Safety Committee information hearing Wednesday.
On the Net:
Read SB1015, SB718 and SB719 at http://www.sen.ca.gov
Kristies Web site: http://www.kristieslaw.org
PursuitWatch: http://pursuitwatch.org
For more information:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/searchresults...
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IMC Network
Family questions chase events
By Karl Fischer
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
OAKLAND - A UC Berkeley graduate student remained comatose Wednesday with little hope of recovery, six days after a motorist fleeing police slammed into his car at Ashby and San Pablo avenues.
His parents, who flew to Highland Hospital from Shanghai last weekend, remain unsure how it happened, and his friends wonder whether the Albany police officer chasing the motorist acted properly.
But those who care for 24-year-old Jie Wang say they are sure about one thing: As long as doctors say he has a chance, they will not give up hope that the promising chemistry student will recover.
"His parents are faced with a choice right now. (Wang) has a 5 to 10 percent chance to live not as a vegetable. It's a small chance, but his parents still want the best for him," said Xiaqing Wang, the victim's aunt. "They want him to live, so everyone please help."
Wang's parents, Jiaqing Wang and Baozhen Zhang, told what little they knew about the crash at the hospital Tuesday afternoon.
An Albany police officer witnessed what a city spokeswoman described as a drug deal inside a Honda Civic near the Albany waterfront about 8:50 p.m. Feb. 24. The officer chased the car onto Interstate 80, Albany police spokeswoman Judy Lieberman said, but lost the Civic near the Ashby Avenue exit in Berkeley.
The officer, whom the city refuses to name, took the exit and spotted the Civic moments later ahead of him, according to a press release issued Friday morning. Before the officer caught up with the car, it ran a red light at the intersection of Ashby and San Pablo avenues, according to the release, and slammed into Wang's car. He was only a few blocks from home.
Police arrested the driver of the Civic, 29-year-old Albany resident Adam Jones, whom the Alameda County District Attorney's office charged this week with causing injury while evading police. His arraignment is scheduled for today in Alameda County Superior Court.
"Now Jie Wang's relatives have questions for police. They are wondering if this accident happened in a police's chasing. If not, why the suspect ran the red light? If it happened in a chasing, what kind of responsibility should police take?" reads a page devoted to Wang on the Web site of UC Berkeley's Chinese Students and Scholars Association.
The association wants to hear from anyone who witnessed the crash, said president Bo Dai. Wang's friends said Tuesday they do not know where he was going or where he came from before the crash.
"We'd like to know the facts in this issue and for the police department to resolve this issue as soon as possible," Dai said.
Lieberman said prosecutors and the California Highway Patrol are investigating the crash, and the police department is conducting its own internal investigation to determine whether the involved officer followed policy.
She reiterated Tuesday that the officer was not actively pursuing Jones at the time of the crash.
"I'm feeling really sad right now. I've been at Jie Wang's bedside since I came here, day and night ... he was completely innocent," Zhang said through an interpreter. "At this point I want to find the witness to what happened and who is responsible for this."
Reach Karl Fischer at 510-262-2728 or kfischer [at] cctimes.com.
Had the man simply yeilded to the Officers red light and siren when he first attempted to pull him over, and not ran the red light later, this accident would have been avoided, correct?