The officer narrowly avoided hitting a telephone pole before realizing that he probably broke the cruiser’s oil pan
- An Arkansas State Trooper jumped his Dodge Charger in a pursuit at nearly 100 mph.
- The resulting damage took him out of the chase and allowed the suspect to escape.
- The video highlights what appears to be a consistent theme surrounding ASP chases.
Criminals run from the law every day across the globe. Officers rightly try to track them down, but pursuit methods are oftentimes up for debate. A series of videos from Arkansas demonstrate just how dangerous some of those methods can be. In one instance, a trooper jumps his Dodge Charger at nearly 100 mph (160 km/h) before ending the chase due to self-inflicted damage.
On October 15, Arkansas State Trooper Jackson Shumate initiated a traffic stop on a Dodge Charger. For unknown reasons, the Charger fled the stop after initially pulling over at a fuel station. Shumate was out of his own car when the driver sped off so by the time he got back in his car and gave chase, the suspect was long gone.
Read: Kentucky Bill Would Force Street Racers To Watch Their Cars Get Publicly Crushed
Video from Shumate’s patrol car shows that despite speeding at well over 100 mph, he never comes close to catching the suspect. At one stage he hits a traffic control speed bump at 96 mph (154 km/h) based on his in-car GPS. The Dodge Charger goes up into the air and then lands hard on the road.
Shumate audibly reacts and barely avoids hitting a telephone pole. Shortly thereafter, he realizes he has a problem. “It’s got quite a gap on me, I think I broke my oil pan,” Shumate says. According to the video description, the suspect did indeed get away. This is far from the only case where it seems that suspects evade capture while ASP drives at double or even triple the speed limit to catch them.
In another video from October 20th, ASP Trooper Tyler Van Schoyck spends over five minutes speeding around traffic before even putting eyes on a suspect. At one point, he rips down a 35 mph (56 km/h) residential street in the oncoming lane at over 80 mph (~130 km/h). It’s not as though he’s doing this in the middle of the night either. The chase happened at 1:38 p.m. Again, the suspect appears to have lost the officers when the video ends.
No doubt, police have a hard job to do and some of that comes with a measure of risk both to the officer and to the public they are sworn to protect and serve. On the other hand, some of the evidence points to a habitual tendency to excessively speed when there is no clear verifiable suspect anywhere in view.
Moreover, these officers are not only risking their own safety but potentially that of the public by sustaining these chases in this manner. Other departments across the nation are leveraging technology like GPS trackers, drones, or even helicopters to keep track of suspects without engaging in high-speed pursuits. Is that what Arkansas police should do? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.