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On the afternoon of Sept. 15, the OPP managed to capture a suspected killer — the subject of a two-province manhunt — by using a spiked belt to disable his vehicle on County Road 132 near the village of Dacre, deep in Renfrew County.
Once crippled, the SUV plowed through a flower bush and came to rest against a stone fence, according to a couple startled in their rural home.
Consider the highly-dangerous moment. The driver was not only a suspect in his wife’s slaying but was linked to the disappearance of a man in a car heist, and he had with him a six-year-old subject of an Amber Alert. Desperation, surely, was in the air.
But, after a short chase and a strike from a stun gun, the man was captured and the teary-eyed boy was in safe-keeping, soon given a Freezie. This is how it’s supposed to end.
How horribly different things turned out in Arnprior this week, when an OPP pursuit ended with an allegedly stolen truck ramming into a car carrying an innocent grandmother going to pick up her grandson at daycare.
Many is the mourner for Sheila Welsh, 65, by all accounts a terrific person who died in a reckless crash that never should have happened.
An investigation by Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit will eventually fill in the picture, but some obvious questions have already emerged.
The truck was allegedly stolen in Eganville. Was it really necessary to conduct a high-speed chase — 60 or 70 kilometres later — as the vehicle exited Highway 17 and raced into Arnprior’s commercial strip, a small-town Merivale Road? It’s a miracle more people weren’t killed.
Four hundred vehicles are stolen every day in Canada: it’s not a life-or-death emergency. What danger is being posed to the motoring public by a car thief NOT being pursued by police? And if the OPP had any inkling the suspect was Zachary Wittke, 20 — who seems to have a chased-by-cop danger wish — then even tougher questions will need to be answered.
Put another way: stopping a fleeing murder suspect who may want to harm a little boy is tremendously more urgent — and demands riskier tactics — than stopping a troubled young man who has allegedly stolen yet another vehicle and has a history of irrational plans.
No one knows the hazards of police chases better than the police themselves, which is why the practice is closely governed by provincial regulation and internal policies.
In plain language, a chase is only to be initiated if a serious criminal offence is alleged to have occurred, if the chase itself does not pose an unreasonable risk to the public, and if a supervisor, via dispatch and away from the heat of the moment, approves. Furthermore, the conditions of the pursuit have to be continually reassessed as vehicles move from isolated to populated areas, or into vulnerable spots like school zones.
Chasing a bad guy in a police cruiser might be the most dangerous thing an officer does without a gun. Think of it: both the officer and the perpetrator are putting their lives at risk, not to mention any bystanders, by racing at about 160 km/h on roads designed for half that speed and possibly sprinkled with school buses.
There is an American advocacy group, PursuitSAFETY, that aims to reduce the threat to civilians and police officers from dangerous chases. It estimates about 350 people are killed annually in police pursuits across the U.S. and more than one-third are innocent bystanders. It also cites statistics from an international police database that found 91 per cent of chases are for non-violent crimes.
It may be time to end traditional police chases period, given advances in technology.
If police want to find you, surely, they find you, especially given the footprint we leave electronically (cellphones, bank cards, GPS devices) and the prevalence of on-street or commercial surveillance cameras.
The OPP, too, are experimenting with a GPS-dart technology called STAR, which uses satellite tracking. If a vehicle attempts to flee from police, the laser-guided dart can be fired and attached to the vehicle and allow it to be tracked anywhere. The OPP currently has a pilot project underway in the Greater Toronto Area.
Citing the SIU investigation, the OPP has declined to say whether it tried to use a spike belt, what it knew about the driver, how long it chased the truck, and whether the chase was ever called off as the vehicles approached Arnprior.
There had to be a better way. We owe it to the Welsh family to find out.
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
Once crippled, the SUV plowed through a flower bush and came to rest against a stone fence, according to a couple startled in their rural home.
Consider the highly-dangerous moment. The driver was not only a suspect in his wife’s slaying but was linked to the disappearance of a man in a car heist, and he had with him a six-year-old subject of an Amber Alert. Desperation, surely, was in the air.
But, after a short chase and a strike from a stun gun, the man was captured and the teary-eyed boy was in safe-keeping, soon given a Freezie. This is how it’s supposed to end.
How horribly different things turned out in Arnprior this week, when an OPP pursuit ended with an allegedly stolen truck ramming into a car carrying an innocent grandmother going to pick up her grandson at daycare.
Many is the mourner for Sheila Welsh, 65, by all accounts a terrific person who died in a reckless crash that never should have happened.
An investigation by Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit will eventually fill in the picture, but some obvious questions have already emerged.
The truck was allegedly stolen in Eganville. Was it really necessary to conduct a high-speed chase — 60 or 70 kilometres later — as the vehicle exited Highway 17 and raced into Arnprior’s commercial strip, a small-town Merivale Road? It’s a miracle more people weren’t killed.
Four hundred vehicles are stolen every day in Canada: it’s not a life-or-death emergency. What danger is being posed to the motoring public by a car thief NOT being pursued by police? And if the OPP had any inkling the suspect was Zachary Wittke, 20 — who seems to have a chased-by-cop danger wish — then even tougher questions will need to be answered.
Put another way: stopping a fleeing murder suspect who may want to harm a little boy is tremendously more urgent — and demands riskier tactics — than stopping a troubled young man who has allegedly stolen yet another vehicle and has a history of irrational plans.
No one knows the hazards of police chases better than the police themselves, which is why the practice is closely governed by provincial regulation and internal policies.
In plain language, a chase is only to be initiated if a serious criminal offence is alleged to have occurred, if the chase itself does not pose an unreasonable risk to the public, and if a supervisor, via dispatch and away from the heat of the moment, approves. Furthermore, the conditions of the pursuit have to be continually reassessed as vehicles move from isolated to populated areas, or into vulnerable spots like school zones.
Chasing a bad guy in a police cruiser might be the most dangerous thing an officer does without a gun. Think of it: both the officer and the perpetrator are putting their lives at risk, not to mention any bystanders, by racing at about 160 km/h on roads designed for half that speed and possibly sprinkled with school buses.
There is an American advocacy group, PursuitSAFETY, that aims to reduce the threat to civilians and police officers from dangerous chases. It estimates about 350 people are killed annually in police pursuits across the U.S. and more than one-third are innocent bystanders. It also cites statistics from an international police database that found 91 per cent of chases are for non-violent crimes.
It may be time to end traditional police chases period, given advances in technology.
If police want to find you, surely, they find you, especially given the footprint we leave electronically (cellphones, bank cards, GPS devices) and the prevalence of on-street or commercial surveillance cameras.
The OPP, too, are experimenting with a GPS-dart technology called STAR, which uses satellite tracking. If a vehicle attempts to flee from police, the laser-guided dart can be fired and attached to the vehicle and allow it to be tracked anywhere. The OPP currently has a pilot project underway in the Greater Toronto Area.
Citing the SIU investigation, the OPP has declined to say whether it tried to use a spike belt, what it knew about the driver, how long it chased the truck, and whether the chase was ever called off as the vehicles approached Arnprior.
There had to be a better way. We owe it to the Welsh family to find out.
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
