Police Pursuit

[Keith]

About 10:30 this morning, a man shopping at Wal-Mart at I-240 and Santa-Fe, noticed his stolen pickup in the parking lot. He called police and they tried to apprehend the suspect before he could get out of the parking lot. Unfortunately, the suspect left the parking lot and let the police on a pursuit.

The pursuit, which I caught on my scanner from the beginning, started in SE. OKC and was not over with until the suspect collided with an SUV and took off on foot.

During this pursuit, the suspect had no regard for human life. He blew through stop signs, red lights, and caused multiple accidents, involving innocent drivers. As the officers waited for Air 1 to get in the air, Chopper 4 was already over the pursuit as it weaved its way through city streets in Midwest City. 911 dispatchers had to turn on their TV's in dispatch so that they could get a view from Chopper 4 as to where the suspect was.

When the suspect took on on foot through an apartment complex, he hadn't planned on running in to the apartment security guy. The security guard got the guy down and held him until police arrived.

The suspect has multiple charges against him, including reckless driving, leaving the scene of multiple accidents, eluding police, driving a stolen vehicle, and many other charges. Found out that he already had a felony arrest warrant out on him.

This guy needs to be put away for good, for all the problems he caused today and all the laws that he broke.

[Patrick]

Hmmm......I'd be interest in hearing what 1adam12 has to say about this, since he's familiar with the workings of the Police Department.

[1adam12]

All I can say is that the suspect had total disregard for public safety, and was a danger to society due to his wreckless driving. Not only was he a danger to citizens, he was a danger to the officers involved in the pursuit. He should have just given up when he saw the media helicopter, then our helicopter. He chose to keep going, which caused him to add multiple charges to his record, in addition to the ones he already had. In my opinion, guys like that are scum, and need to be spending many years behind bars.

[Midtowner]

I've heard about a lot of new vehicle immobilization systems coming out. Where is OKC on equipping their patrol cars with a few of these options?

[1adam12]

It will be a long time yet. We are still waiting for our 800 mhz radio's that we were promised a couple of years ago. OKC is so far behind on new technology. It's called politics and red tape : Gotta love it

[Midtowner]

It will be a long time yet. We are still waiting for our 800 mhz radio's that we were promised a couple of years ago. OKC is so far behind on new technology. It's called politics and red tape : Gotta love it

Really!? Damn... Did any of that sales tax money go to the OKC police, or just the Sheriff? Well, anyhow, is it the chief's fault? What's the deal?

[Patrick]

Well, the money was promised as part of the last city bond issue passed. Unfortunately, bond issues work like MAPS does...it's all set up on a schedule. The OKC PD will get the new radios pretty soon. The Sheriff's office doesn't get any of the money from the last bond issue. This was a city bond issue...the sheriff's department of course is county. Whetsel tried to get a tax increase passed sometime ago, but many of the council members, including Mayor Humphries, campaigned against it.

[Midtowner]

Ah, that's right. I had one of my fraternity brothers (who at the time was a detention officer at the jail) try to convince me to sign the sherrif's petition.