I spy someone else who works in Illinois.
Those of you advocating for not chasing fleeing vehicles are, I’m sure, the same ones who complain about Chicago’s abhorrent crime rate. No-Chase policies have paved the way for the state of the world we live in currently. Give an Inch, and assholes take a Mile.
A major problem in the Chicagoland area right now is crews of juveniles running around in stolen high performance Dodges/Jeeps (SRT’s, Scat Packs, Hellcats, Trackhawks, etc...). Most are armed, and commonly responsible for repeated shootings, robberies, carjackings (usually taking more high end vehicles to assist them in their continued criminal efforts) and more. They flee with impunity (usually until they total the vehicle because they don’t have the driving experience/learned skill to handle those type of cars). They frequently swap out the registrations with plates stolen off similar vehicles or unattended dealer plates. Even my suburban county has had issues with these crews. As LE, all you know is that you have a speeding Dodge Charger or Jeep Grand Cherokee until they flee, and often even after that we can only suspect it was a stolen vehicle. Difficult to know much more until they’re in custody.
Without catching them in the act, there’s very little chance of finding out who was driving those vehicles. If by chance you end up locating a vehicle that hasn’t been burned out; Juveniles aren’t gonna have DNA samples in CODIS, and fingerprints are nearly impossible to pull out of modern vehicles with what has become the typical textured interiors. That’s the Catch-22. Sure, if you let the supposed “minor violators“ go when they run, it might just be a minor violation. It also might be an 18 year old who’s already on parole and in possession of a stolen gun. Tomorrow he could kill someone during a carjacking gone bad. Some here will say this kind of thinking is a “pre-crime”/Minority Report mentality, but I see it as a fairness and consistency issue. Why should criminals be immune from the laws that the rest of us agree to adhere to?
I’ve personally been involved in a chase that began as a violation for no lights on a trailer in a neighboring county. It spanned multiple counties, chase being terminated and eventually picked up elsewhere by another agency until he finally stopped (I take credit for stopping him, because the driver was too damn cold driving on the tollway with his broken out window, courtesy of yours truly...he was stopping and letting officers approach, then taking off, repeatedly). Arresting officers pulled a clearly mentally unstable individual from the vehicle and found countless bomb making materials and a baffling amount of 20 gallon propane tanks located both in his vehicle and enclosed trailer).
Don’t make excuses for criminals. You can’t know the extent of their criminality until they’ve been caught. If they don’t flee, no one gets hurt. How can any other outcome possibly be the fault of the police?
