Following orders or not, it takes a lot of guts to initiate a collision at 109 mph. The officer had to know there was the possibility of a terrible wreck.

Probability, not possibility. He did know that, and yet he proceeded in order to protect people he’d never met who were just out going on with their lives that day.

There is not a single decision we make or an action that we take that could not be improved upon with the benefit of hindsight analyzation. This officer and his supervisor had to make a call in the midst of a high speed chase. That decision did indeed put certain people in danger, but it also mitigated a huge risk to an unknown number of innocent bystanders.

I trust the training, experience and instincts of those brave people who were in the field that day. It is shameful for people to nitpick these decisions from the comfort of your living room while watching the scenario from a eight inch window. Shameful.

Dang

I agree 100%. I respect people's right to question, but the officers responding to the actions of this criminal driver were protecting everyone else on and around the highway. Regardless of the reason for the initial attempt to stop him, the pickup driver became a fleeing felon when he decided to evade arrest at 110 mph on busy public roadways.

Pretty sure the Arkansas State Police uses "Smokey and the Bandit" and "The Dukes of Hazzard" as pursuit training videos.

Boxing a fleeing vehicle in, especially at that speed, is MUCH more dangerous than a PIT maneuver. And very, very few — if any — (I ain’t seen one yet other than in videos adveriising them) officers have those nets you refer to. I have performed the maneuver at 85mph on a fleeing felon — with a textbook perfect result, I might add, on video — but I know for sure I wouldn’t want to try it at 109. It appeared to me that the violator braked hard just before impact, causing way too deep an engagement on the ASP car. But I watched it on my cellular phone, so it’s too small an image to be sure.

I hate pursuits. There are way too many things, all of them out of your control, that can go terribly wrong. But — you never know why the violator is running. I’ve caught a guy wanted for murder after a pursuit. I also had a woman run, who hit over a dozen cars and ran over a motorcycle officer, because she didn’t want a ticket for 71 in a 45. I have also terminated a lot of pursuits because I felt they were getting too dangerous to continue. But no matter why we pursue someone, or how it turns out, part of our society will always holler that law enforcement should have done it differently, whether they did it right or not. No other profession has so many experts with no training or experience in that field.

No nitpicking from me. I’ve worn the badge for going on 23 years.

Thank you for your service!!!

Thank you!

it looks like they were coming up to a town. can you imagine a small country town with everyone walking around crossing streets having breakfast, enjoying life etc.etc. . then some truck rolls thru at 109mph and in town its 30mph an entire family helping grandma across the street. the potential catastrophes are endless. how many lives did that cop save by a very risky pit. he was willing to sacrifice himself to save many...if my thoughts are crazy lmk it wont hurt my feelings.

I’ll agree with you 30 ft Jon boat-

Thank you by the opinions around here lately ya'll had me thinking. i was loosing it.

they stop people in different ways.

I was on hwy 99 in kalifornicate headed south just south of stockton and on the cb a female voice asks for assistance. it was a chip in pursuit in traffic and she didn't have backup in near proximity.
asked if any semis could block the road for her, about 6 or 7 of us filled the road from shoulder to shoulder so nothing could get by and slowed traffic to about 15 mph. her runner had nowhere to go and when backup got to her (maybe 3-4 mins.) we just got back in the right lane and kept goin, did hear her say thank you and they got the idiot. figure they must have been wanted for some major felony stuff for her to have done what she did, had he made it to 5 he would have been long gone in traffic.

the states that let hwy patrol have cbs would do that for different reasons, some just to say thanks when they caught someone that we reported.

X2 I've seen this before and agree ^^^^^^^^