2nd Suspect in 3 Weeks Escapes Police Car While Handcuffed

For the second time in three weeks, a suspect handcuffed in the back of a police car in Sepulveda escaped after unlocking his seat belt and maneuvering his cuffed hands from behind him to his front, Los Angeles police said Friday.

Although the Police Department is studying whether equipment changes might prevent similar escapes in the future, authorities said the officers involved in both incidents erred by taking their eyes off the prisoners.

Both escapes occurred within a few blocks of each other on Nordhoff Street, near the San Diego Freeway.

On Aug. 29, a suspect freed himself and then stole the patrol car.

He was captured after a chase in which the patrol car crashed into a parked car.

Police said the latest escape occurred at 2 p.m. Thursday when Michael Smith, 27, leaped from a patrol car and ran off.

He remained at large Friday.

Capt. Jim Whitley, head of patrol in the Devonshire Division, said two officers, whose names were not released, arrested Smith in the 15100 block of Nordhoff Street during a routine traffic stop when it was found Smith had no driver’s license.

The officers checked Smith’s name on a police computer and learned that a Michael Smith was wanted on a drug-related arrest warrant.

Smith was handcuffed with his hands behind him and placed in the rear of a patrol car. The seat belt was then placed across his lap.

But while the officers were standing outside the car, Smith managed to push the button unlocking the seat belt and move the handcuffs from his back to his front by sliding them under his legs, police said.

He then opened the car door and fled on foot.

After officers began their search, they determined he was not the Michael Smith wanted on the arrest warrant.

He was, however, on parole from prison and his escape from police custody and the theft of handcuffs violated that parole, Whitley said.

Whitley said the seat belt in the car latches near the back of the seat, an easy reach for Smith even with his hands cuffed behind him.

Whitley said he could recommend to fleet administrators that cars be outfitted with seat belts that lock in front of a prisoner’s waist.

In the earlier escape, Willie Lozano, 31, was arrested for possession of stolen merchandise and placed in the back of a patrol car that was left running.

Lozano freed himself from the seat belt, brought the cuff under his legs to his front and jumped into the front seat and drove away.

The stolen patrol car was driven on freeways and surface streets before crashing in Pacoima.

Lozano was arrested after he was found hiding in a nearby apartment complex.

Lozano pleaded no contest Thursday to unlawfully driving the police car and interfering with officers.

Under terms of the plea bargain, Lozano must spend one year in jail and pay for damages.

Whitley said he is reviewing the actions taken by officers and the procedures and equipment used to secure prisoners in patrol cars.

Department officials said statistics on escapes from patrol cars are not kept but that incidences are rare.

“We just had a roll of bad luck with these two,” Whitley said.

Whitley said he is studying whether the escapes could have been avoided if Los Angeles patrol cars were equipped with rear doors that can not be opened from the inside or have screens between the front and back seats.

Police said that such “caging” devices have recently been tested by the department, but no decision has been made to purchase them.