Police should think before pursuing (01/19/08)

To the editor:

In yesterday's edition of The Commercial Review, I was very interested to read the tale of a recent "high speed chase" that involved Portland City Police. I do not know the person who was recognized by the reserve officer, and in no way condone his actions. It is imperative to point out that anyone should immediately comply with authorities when they are being pulled over or detained by police.

It is also requisite to point out, however, the time of day, and more importantly the direction and location of this chase. As per the officer's statement in the paper and on the radio, the chase originated near the Wal- Mart and headed west and south out of town on Ind. 67 a bit after 4 p.m. Think about this for a minute folks. School and several local industries had just let out for the day. This suspect was heading directly towards the school and also down a highway that has school buses discharging students along it.

I agree with a local resident who lives along this route who called me and voiced concern about the wisdom of the decision to pursue someone that the police admittedly knew who was, and knew his address, at this time of day.

I do not live along that route myself, but can indeed understand the concern of residents who do. If I had a child who was leaving the school either on a bus or in a car that he or she drove to and from school, the possibilities of something tragic coming out of this are simply mind boggling.

According to NTSB statistics, an officer is killed in the line of duty in a pursuit once every ten weeks. And more importantly perhaps, in excess of 300 people a year die as a result of such pursuits. To say it can't happen here is patently ridiculous, because remember folks, just a few years ago we had our one in 300 right here in Jay County. The same situation applied there as in here. The officer recognized the perpetrator and gave chase, and that one ended tragically, when they knew full well who he was and where to track him down.

The liability that this sort of thing exposes the city and county to is incredible, and to this writer, it would appear that not many lessons were learned out of a very recent tragedy. The chase ended well and all was secure in the end no doubt due to excellent communication and good police inter-agency cooperation, but it would not be right not to point out that at this time of day and in this location, we quite simply may have just "gotten lucky this time."

Respectfully submitted,

James D. Fulks III

Dunkirk[[In-content Ad]]