How far should an officer of the law go to stop a criminal?
Most importantly, how many other lives should police officers put at risk to stop a fleeing lawbreaker?
Police chases have their place in satisfying pop culture's insatiable appetite for all sorts of mediocre reality TV shows. Really, what would Fox do without "World's Wildest Police Videos"?
We've learned from watching these shows that police chases involve wily suspects escaping cops on foot, on motorcycle or in vehicles eventually to be lassoed somehow to a halt by the boys in blue.
Clearly, we're watching. Anyone remember being glued to the TV when OJ Simpson (a true pioneer of reality crime TV) took the LAPD on the wildest ride his white bronco ever saw (well, the wildest ride that can be televised anyway) through the City of Angels?
They're exciting, they're adrenaline-pumping, they make reality-TV execs, nightly news producers and the guys who fly the news choppers happy. And once in a while they bring a criminal to justice.
But what ends up on the cutting floor of reality TV, and what's not shown on the news choppers cameras, is the danger these chases present to the driving public.
Mary Shelley wants to minimize that danger. She wants to make sure police aren't gambling with innocent lives when they go chasing after criminals with lights and sirens blazing and news choppers in hot pursuit. She also wants to make sure that if police take unnecessary chances that result in lost lives while trying to bring a perp to justice, that they are punished for it. And punished with more than a reprimand and a slap on the wrist.
Shelley's son, Evan, an ASU computer systems engineering junior was killed Sept. 25 when a Department of Public Safety officer ran a red light and hit Evan's car on the driver's side. The officer ran the red light going 25 mph over the speed limit while continuing a police chase he had been instructed by DPS to terminate.
With a plea bargain in March, the officer was charged with negligent homicide, carrying a much lesser punishment than his original charge of vehicular manslaughter.
Shelley thinks officers who kill people while driving recklessly should be held to the same standard as civilians who do the same thing.
The officer's objective was to stop a crime, not to star in his own live police chase. By continuing the chase after he had been ordered to stop, he ignored safety, the law and respect for the lives of others.
Shelley wants DPS to change its pursuit laws. She said the department should use helicopters or other less dangerous measures to track down wayward criminals. DPS said it costs too much.
Perhaps DPS should rethink its policy on allowing pursuits altogether. High-speed chases may be fodder for reality TV, but they are more dangerous than they are helpful.
Police should and do take heroic measures to stop criminals. We respect that and their willingness to, day after day, put their lives in danger to protect us. But they shouldn't take reckless measures, like pursuing criminals while driving recklessly through lanes of traffic carrying innocents.
Continuing the chase costs more than having a police helicopter follow runaway criminals would. It cost Evan Shelley his life.
