High-Speed Chases More Common, CHP Reports : Law enforcement: The agency took part in 967 danger-filled pursuits last year. Officers typically follow until the fleeing car runs out of gas.

It starts when a driver defies the flashing red light atop a police vehicle and speeds off. The situation can quickly take dangerous--and sometimes deadly--turns.

Police say more and more suspects are willing to take the risk of trying to outrun the law. For their part, few law-enforcement officers look forward to the ensuing high-speed pursuits.

“You could end up dead. Cops like pursuits less than anyone else,” said California Highway Patrol spokesman Sam Haynes in Sacramento.

Last Tuesday, a 31-year-old Woodland Hills man suspected of drunk driving was chased by CHP officers from Northridge into Ventura County at speeds exceeding 80 m.p.h. The early-morning chase wound through Moorpark and continued toward the Santa Clara River Bridge, where the suspect finally surrendered.

Fortunately, no one was hurt.

That wasn’t the case earlier this month in Riverside County. Six people died in Temecula when a stolen vehicle fleeing from U. S. Border Patrol agents crashed into a car in front of a high school.

“Each pursuit is different,” said CHP Lt. Richard Williamson of the agency’s Ventura-area station. “We review the incidents and critique them.”

So far this year, he said, the CHP has been involved in eight pursuits in Ventura County, contrasted with 31 high-speed chases in all of 1991.

Statewide last year, the CHP took part in 967 pursuits, which resulted in injuries to seven CHP officers and five other officers from local police agencies, Haynes said.

In those chases, he said, 11 suspects were killed and 133 individuals in the fleeing vehicles were injured. Even more tragic, 51 innocent people not involved in the chases--drivers and their passengers--were injured during the incidents.

About 75% of last year’s fleeing suspects were caught by the CHP, Haynes said.

As a result of the 1991 pursuits, there were 728 arrests, the vast majority for outstanding felony warrants, driving a stolen vehicle or driving under the influence of alcohol.

“This is a growing problem,” said Ventura County Sheriff’s Cmdr. Bill Wade, who oversees patrol divisions in the east county. “It’s growing because of a willingness to run, a disregard for safety and a disregard for the law.

“For whatever reason, there are more people taking this course of action.”

One answer, he said, is to urge the state Legislature to enact tougher laws to punish individuals who speed off when they see a red light flashing behind them. “I’m talking about five years in a state prison,” Wade said, adding that drunk driving has decreased because of tougher penalties.

Because high-speed chases can wind through congested urban areas, officers must make quick judgments based on a concern for public safety.

“Our officers are governed by a common-sense approach in pursuits as well as other law-enforcement activities,” Haynes said.

But the CHP relies on training as well as common sense.

Each cadet hears hours of classroom lectures on pursuit techniques and takes behind-the-wheel training on a test track and specialized training on a “skid pan” designed to teach rookies how to control their vehicles under slippery conditions.

“Cadets are taught not to be aggressive drivers but to drive within the limits of their capabilities,” according to a CHP memo on the subject.

CHP training instructors underscore keeping the car under control with lights flashing and siren wailing to warn civilians of the dangerous situation.

“Because a fairly high percentage of pursued drivers end up driving beyond their capabilities, the CHP teaches cadets to ‘let them make the mistakes,’ ” the CHP memo said.

Pursuit policies vary from police jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

Generally, the CHP and many other agencies will chase a vehicle until it runs out of gas so long as safety guidelines are being met.

The CHP also authorizes its officers in rare circumstances to lay down a 20-foot-wide “spike strip” containing hollow spikes mounted in a rubber tube designed to trigger slow leaks, but not blowouts.

Another CHP policy allows officers, on occasion, to ram a fleeing car, Haynes said. But the Oxnard Police Department prohibits ramming.

“We don’t ram, we don’t blockade,” said Lt. Jeff Young. “You just have to keep going” after the suspect, he said.

One of the toughest snap decisions to make in a chase is how to handle a suspect’s driving through a red light at a busy intersection, police say.

“You don’t just bust into the intersection like the suspect would,” Young said. “You might have to come to a complete stop.”

Most agencies, such as the CHP and the Oxnard police, have one officer in the chase vehicle concentrating on the speeding auto while another car is concerned with radio transmissions.

When the fleeing vehicle leaves a local jurisdiction, such as Oxnard, the CHP is called into the chase, Young said.