It was a stereotypical southern summer; sunny, hot, and humid. I was in my patrol car trying to cool off from the heat, when all of a sudden the radio went off. Another agency was in pursuit of a vehicle and they were about a mile from my location. My Lieutenant came on the radio and gave orders to join the pursuit.
I took off with lights and sirens on and drove as fast as my car would let me. I flew down the road in hopes of being able to assist them. As I came closer to the place where I planned to intercept the fleeing vehicle, I turned off my sirens so that I could better hear the revving engines that you can usually hear during a chase. A few seconds later, I heard a police siren which was slowly getting louder and louder. I looked to my left and saw a red car flying down the road. Behind the red car was an easily recognizable, police Chevy Tahoe, trying to keep up. I grabbed the radio and yelled out “I’m in pursuit!”
Most people look at car chases on tv and think “wow that must be so much fun!” Well, It may be fun but it is also one of the most nerve-wracking things a police officer may have to do. On TV and in movies when cops put on their lights and sirens there are no cars on the road or cars get out of their way immediately or they hit an object and just continue the chase. In real life, it isn’t like that. Some passenger cars just stop in the roadway, making it more difficult to get by, others slow down and some just keep on going like it is a normal traffic occurrence. Also, if an officer were to get into an accident while having lights and sirens on, often they will be blamed if they were to crash. So like I said, it may be fun but it is extremely stressful.
As soon as I got behind the red car, the Chevy Tahoe seemed to slow down significantly. I sighed because I got confused by that. The officer in the Tahoe pretty much suggested that he wanted me to take over the lead in this chase. I held the gas down as far as it would go to try and keep up with the fleeing red car. The red car was zig zagging through traffic and running dangerously through red lights. I did my best to keep up without hitting anyone or anything.
Then the red car tried to drive over a concert median. All of a sudden I heard a boom. I then saw the pressurized air of the front passenger side tire leak out. A little bit of relief came over me knowing that the chase would soon come to an end. I came over the radio and yelled “front tire just blew.” Not wanting my supervision to cancel me from the chase I clarified “uhh his tire, not mine.” I got approval to continue the chase. We made it to the highway and about 15 seconds later the fleeing car made a sharp right and drove straight into the wood line. It looked like he meant to drive into the woods but of course he hit a tree. The front door flew open and he started running into the denser part of the woods. I put my car in park and began to run after him. Meanwhile the Tahoe had pulled up to the location and as I peeked behind me to see if help was nearby, I could see the officer with his armed crossed, leaning on the hood of his vehicle just watching me do my thing.
I can still remember looking at the officer in disgust but I had to continue the chase. I yelled out over the radio to describe what he was wearing as I tried to keep up. I kept him in view but was struggling to close the distance. The tree branches kept getting caught on my vest,the extra 25 to 30 pounds of police gear that we all carry and the 90+ degree temperature made it a nightmare keeping up with this guy. Then I saw him trip over something. But the weird thing was I didn’t see him hit the ground. It looked like he fell and the ground swallowed him up. When I got closer to the area where he fell, I saw a dried-up ravine about 6 feet deep. I stared at the ravine for a few seconds before saying “nope.” I then slowly tried to make my way back. Unfortunately, I was now lost in the woods. Luckily I left my car sirens on and so I used them as a marker of sorts to get a sense of the direction. After roughly 20 minutes I found my way back. My sergeant and friend, Kyle. asked me if I was ok and I told him I was good but just annoyed.
Then I looked up and saw the officer in the Tahoe still at the scene. He was talking to other officers. He stopped talking to them and walked up to me. Before I could say anything to him he said “oh hey buddy. Great job. You were so fast. I knew I couldn’t keep up with you two, so I just thought I would stay here.” I just looked at him and said “whatever man” and walked right by him. It was an obvious lie but there was nothing I could do about his sarcasm. He was from another agency and my agency had no say on how to handle him. I then got a call from my supervisor who was on his way with four other officers. Two of them had tracking dogs. I already knew what that meant. The leader of the team with the dogs asked if I could lead him back into the woods. I agreed half-heartedly and after another 20 minutes of hiking through the woods, I led the officers to the place where I thought I last saw the suspect.
The tracking team jumped into the dried-up ravine and I was once again lost in the woods as I tried to find my way back to my vehicle. For about 30 minutes I was aimlessly walking around the woods. It was so bad that I almost called for help. Eventually, after dripping in sweat, feeling hot and dehydrated, bitten by many bugs, cut by trees and extremely frustrated and angry, I somehow found the highway and was able to walk back to my car. I started my vehicle and tiredly drove back to the office. About 5 minutes later I heard the K-9 officer on the radio say “we got him.” I let out a scream in celebration, which felt like it rid my soul of so much more negativity.
I got back to headquarters and gave my supervision a debriefing of what happened. They then told me what they had learned while all of this went down. The man in the red car, named Steve, stole a power drill from a Home Depot in the jurisdiction of the neighboring police agency. The officer in the Tahoe decided to chase after him. In shock I asked “ so I chased a car at over 100 mph because of a stolen power drill?” They responded yes and of course he said that if they knew that beforehand they would have never told me to assist in the chase.
A few hours later I arrived at the jail to give the driver Steve an official copy of his charges. This was the first time I got a good look at Steve. He was a short, older black male. Not heavy, but by no means skinny. As soon as Steve walked out of his jail cell I read him his charges. He said “uhh Officer? Please don’t charge me with a felony. I already have some from all the other officers who chased after me.” “Did you run from me?” I asked Steve. “Uhh yes,” he replied. “Did you put your life, my life and the life of everyone else on the road in danger because of a power drill?” Steve stared at me as though this was a trick question. Then he answered, “yeah, but no one got hurt.” I just sighed and shook my head, not wanting to waste anymore time over Steve and his stolen power drill. It was time for me to walk off, forget about this silly ordeal and take a nice long shower.
Posted here first [https://ourstoriesfrombehindthebadge.wordpress.com/2022/06/16/lost-and-furious/]