The Fight Against Crime: Notes From the Front : Police Pursuit Mixes Speed With Caution

Los Angeles Police Sgt. Paul Modrell remembers it like it was yesterday, although it was really 15 years ago. He and his partner were in Van Nuys, munching burritos on their lunch break, when they overheard radio traffic about a man on PCP fleeing from police in North Hollywood.

A few bites later, the fugitive was in Van Nuys, roaring past Modrell and his partner, who ditched their burritos and gave chase, siren blaring.

On the Ventura Freeway, the hood of the fugitive’s old sedan popped up, forcing him to lean out the window to navigate, until he crashed, dashed and was chased down by other officers.

“It’s an exciting thing,” Modrell of the Valley Traffic Division said of vehicle pursuits. “Your adrenaline is pumping, but it’s scary because when you start going high speeds on surface streets, you’re exposing yourself to many dangers.”

You’ve seen it countless times in the movies: Police chase a suspect through the crowded streets of Downtown Los Angeles, tearing through red lights at 100 m.p.h., careening down the wrong side of a freeway, skidding around terrified pedestrians.

But that’s Hollywood. In real life, officers say, chases can be thrilling for the officer behind the wheel, but caution is more important than death-defying driving.

“The reason most of us are attracted to law enforcement is because we want to protect people and help catch the bad guys,” Modrell said. “When you go into a pursuit after someone, your instincts are just to catch the bad guy. We really have to step back and make a judgment as to whether it’s worth it.”

“Once the person takes off,” said Sgt. Ron Moen, who teaches pursuit driving at the Police Academy, officers “are told they must consider: What they are chasing? Is it a violent criminal or just a traffic violation? Is it worth going at the speeds they need to go to catch that person?”

Police are at an inherent disadvantage in pursuits: While the suspect may flagrantly disregard the safety of fellow motorists and pedestrians, officers must take them into account.

For example, officers cannot run a red light until they have checked that the intersection is clear, Modrell said.

Pursuits usually don’t begin until a police car has started flashing its lights, Moen said. It’s at that point that a suspect knows the officer wants to pull him over, and so may flee. For that reason, officers are told to delay activating their lights and sirens as long as possible before trying to pull someone over for something as mundane as a traffic violation, Modrell said.

Once the pursuit begins, it should involve only one “black-and-white,” with another patrol car trailing behind for backup, and possibly a supervisor’s car that is in the area, Modrell said.

Police are cautioned not to follow the fleeing car too closely. Fugitives have been known to slam on the brakes, causing the police cruiser to slam into the rear of the car, damaging the cruiser’s radiator and cooling system, and then speed off, Moen said.

Ideally, a police helicopter will be able to reach the chase area and help the pursuing car, Moen said. The airborne units can tell pursuing cars whether intersections ahead are clear for them to speed through without slowing, as well as keep track of the fleeing auto if the officers in the chase car lose sight of it.

Once a helicopter is on the job, the police car is supposed to slow down.

“We strongly encourage all our ground units to back out of all pursuits once an air unit is overhead,” Moen said. When that pursuing police car can no longer be spotted in the rear-view mirror, “generally the suspects will slow down, and sometimes they may just pull over to the curb and run from the vehicle,” he said.

That makes things easier, Moen said. “It’s much easier to set a perimeter around somebody who is on foot,” he said. “In a vehicle, they’re too mobile.”

Los Angeles police almost never try to contain a fleeing vehicle by boxing it in with police cruisers or setting up roadblocks, the officer said. “That will likely result in an injury and collision,” Moen said, adding that officers have been seriously injured in pursuits and some motorcycle officers have been killed during chases. “Tactics like that are highly discouraged unless it is a matter of life and death.”

“It looks really good in movies,” Modrell said, “but it’s not effective.”