ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 30, 1996 TAG: 9604300069
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LETITIA E. LANDRY
IN RESPONSE to your April 23 news article, ``Police defend fatal chase'':
Reporters Diane Struzzi and Laurence Hammack describe the tragic deaths of a family of three, Thomas Faucher Jr., 34, Lori Mason, 36, and their 6-week-old daughter, Joleen Faucher, killed on April 21 in a police-pursuit accident. The family was struck by the eluder, Scott Allman, initially chased by the Roanoke County police for having tinted windows.
The families of these three innocent third-party victims are among many across the country whose lives have been changed forever when a police pursuit went tragically awry. The numbers are staggering: 2,500 estimated deaths per year and 55,000 injuries. These tragedies are all the more senseless when one considers that 60 percent to 80 percent of police pursuits are for minor traffic violations.
The death or injury of a loved one in a police-pursuit accident is the life experience shared by members of the Solutions to Tragedies of Police Pursuits organization. We've joined together to offer support to other families and to work together to eliminate these senseless tragedies.
STOPP advocates that police adopt safer pursuit policies, namely, those which would more adequately weigh the need to apprehend the suspect vs. the risk to the public created by a chase. Is the need to apprehend the driver of a car with tinted windows, the person with a suspended license, or even the driver of a stolen car worth risking a human life?
The Roanoke Times is to be commended for its thoughtful editorial on April 23 (``A chase - to what end?'') about this accident. The writer questions if `` ... it is reasonable to ask whether police-department policies here and elsewhere are adequate to prevent dangerous high-speed chases except in the most extraordinary circumstances.''
STOPP believes that a chase is only justified for a known violent felon, a suspect who has inflicted serious injury or death or who poses an imminent threat of doing so. This type of policy, which is being adopted by many law-enforcement administrators across the country, puts the public's safety first.
If Roanoke County Police Chief John Cease is interested in ``reducing the chances of this happening again,'' as he's quoted, he would be well-advised to revise his current vehicular pursuit policy. In so doing, he will have made Roanoke a safer place for all its residents.
Letitia E. Landry is executive director of Solutions to Tragedies of Police Pursuits in Jackson, Wyo.
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB