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Only the Names Change
The differences between today’s news stories on pursuit fatalities and those during the “Kristie’s Law” era are the names of the innocent victims and the people who cause these violent crashes. We need to stop doing what doesn’t work so we can quit recycling the same rushed media reports with new names.
The Problem: Policies with ‘no teeth’
To receive blanket immunity, California law requires law enforcement agencies to adopt a vehicular pursuit policy; the state law does not require officers to follow that policy. Why does California lead the nation in the number of innocent people killed in police pursuits?
Experts point to lack of accountability.
Vehicular pursuit is not the only way to apprehend a suspect, but California law does not encourage officers to use other methods to catch these suspects.
The Solution: Kristie's Law
At a California Crime Victims’ dinner in 2004,
Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona said, “Law enforcement collaborates on finding solutions to problems.”
Senator Sam Aanestad bravely steps out to make Kristie’s Law the means to prevent a new generation of innocent victims of police pursuit.
Kristie’s law will save lives..
At the California Senate Public Safety Informational Hearing on
March 9, 2005, Candy Priano spoke to those present
Any legislation in my daughter’s name is NOT about penalizing or hampering the police. [It’s not even about blaming police officers. We all know that people who flees are breaking the law and need to be punished to the fullest extent of the law. But for the safety of innocent bystanders and police officers, law enforcement agencies must be held accountable — even limited liability — if officers fail to follow their own agency’s pursuit policy, comments made after the hearing.
It’s about preventing unnecessary tragedies from happening to other innocent, law-abiding people. It’s about prevention and enforcement of an adopted pursuit policy. California Law requires law enforcement agencies to have a policy, but does not require officers to follow that policy. Had the Chico Police followed their written policy, the pursuit would have been abandoned (or not even started).
Kristie was killed to aid officers in apprehending a teenage girl who had taken her mother’s car without permission. If Kristie had been killed to save a kidnapped child’s life or to catch a violent felon, I would still be filled with grief, but I would understand the necessity of those kinds of chases. And, I would not be trying to change California’s outdated and dangerous pursuit practices.
Click here if you want to read the letter