The Richmond Times-Dispatch
By Frank Green
Published: June 17, 2010
Updated: June 17, 2010 12:27 AM
The Virginia State Crime Commission yesterday kicked off a study that could lead to new law or policy to make police chases and emergency police responses safer.
The effort was prompted by two fatalities: the 2008 death of a Fairfax County woman killed when a police car ran a traffic light while not using its siren, and the death this year of a Richmond clergyman killed by a car that ran a stop sign while fleeing police.
The commission proposes and recommends legislation to the General Assembly.
"I'm not sure that there is any policy out there that will make it safe," said W. Gerald Massengill, the retired Virginia State Police superintendent and chairman of the Law Enforcement Work Group that advises the crime commission.
Nevertheless, he said, when a tragedy occurs, "I think it calls for a close look and an attempt to rectify the situation."
The consensus among more than two dozen members of the work group was that there should be no uniform, statewide policy on the use of lights and sirens at intersections by vehicles on emergency calls.
Concerns about a uniform policy included the different restrictions needed in urban versus rural areas as well as the need for quiet, but rapid, responses to potentially violent situations in which police do not want to alert a suspect they are en route.
The group overwhelmingly favored having the Department of Criminal Justice Services develop a model policy for police pursuits and to have more training for police officers on how and when to conduct such chases, one of the most dangerous situations faced by police.
There also was widespread support for increasing the penalties for eluding police, including the possible civil forfeiture of the offender's vehicle.
Col. Thierry Dupuis, Chesterfield County's police chief, likened speeding away from a pursuing police car to "firing a gun into a crowd."
In the Richmond incident, Apostle Anthony L. Taylor was killed by a car fleeing Henrico County police in a nighttime high-speed chase that led into the city. Police said the fleeing car's lights were off and that the driver ran a stop sign at North 31st and P streets and slammed into Taylor's pickup truck.
Yesterday, Col. H.W. Stanley Jr., a member of the work group and Henrico's police chief, defended his department and noted that Richmond, Henrico and other area police departments have a regional pursuit policy that he believes was followed.
"We did not cause the accident," Stanley said. The person responsible for the death was the person who ran, he said. Darryl M. Harris, 26, faces charges that include aggravated involuntary manslaughter, eluding police and driving under the influence.
Another work group member, Del. Delores L. McQuinn, D-Richmond, made it clear she was not casting blame. But earlier she said, "We don't need any other deaths as a result of these kinds of pursuits." She said the question she hopes to answer is, "How do we protect the police officer as well as the public?"
The commission also is looking into how police can present lineups and photographs of suspects to victims and witnesses better to minimize the chance of a wrong identification and the conviction of an innocent person. Of the 11 wrongly convicted individuals in Virginia thus far exonerated by DNA evidence, nine had been misidentified.