Monday, January 14, 2008

Police Chase

We always wonder about the wisdom of police chases like this. No one was hurt but a car was struck and the pursuit passed through residential and crowded commercial areas:

Here's the Sun's short account:

Maryland State Police took a man into custody after he refused to stop for a traffic violation and led police on a chase on southbound U.S. 29 in Howard County late yesterday afternoon, police said.

The chase started near Route 108 about 5 p.m. and ended about 15 minutes later at the Snowden Square shopping center in Columbia, in the parking lot of Boston Market restaurant, according to state police at the Waterloo barracks.

Police laid out spike strips, which the man drove over. In the course of the chase, the driver struck another vehicle, but no major injuries were reported, police said.


The Examiner reported that Robert Turner, 21, of the 4600 block of Wallington Avenue in Baltimore, was driving with a suspended license about 5 p.m. Saturday when he ran several red lights on eastbound 175 and refused to pull over, according to state police at the Waterloo barracks.

Turner, who lied about his identity, is charged with giving a false statement to a police officer and with several traffic violations.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Considering the nature of the crime, this was a horrible waste of resources. Having witnessed this event, one would have thought that a major crime had been committed! The fear that was caused by seeing so many police cars AND a helicopter was totally unnecessary The police should be ashamed.

John G. Boyle said...

Dan,

What's your thought on this? I mean, if he's running multiple red lights and isn't stopping for the police, I'd think that chasing him would be the appropriate response.