Letter to the Readers

For people who think this legislation is not needed, ask yourself: If the person I love the most — an innocent, law-abiding citizen — was killed in a police vehicular pursuit, would I still think this legislation was not needed? If my innocent child was killed, would I at least question what happened and why? And what would you do if those answers told you that your child’s death was preventable? You found out that your child didn’t need to die because no one’s life was in danger until the suspect fled and the officers decided chase, violating their own pursuit policy because the identity of the suspect was known and the officers knew they could catch the suspect later. Officers also violated their policy by conducting this high-speed chase in a residential neighborhood. It was the pursuit that put Kristie and her family in harm’s way. 

One minute Kristie, together with her family, was traveling in the family’s van to her high school basketball game, the next she became part of a growing number of innocent Californians killed in a police vehicular pursuit. The reason for this chase: a teenage girl had taken her mother’s car without permission. After Kristie was buried, we discovered that prior to the chase, the officers knew the teen’s identity and address and those officers knew it was just mom’s car? (The official report says the chase was to recover a stolen car.) According to a tape transcript of the pursuit, officers observed the teen prior to the chase; she was not speeding and she was not running stop signs. This chase took place in a poorly lit residential neighborhood on narrow streets with blind areas. The teen (who is to blame and should have stopped) was chased at high speed down a street with numerous stop signs that were ignored, while intersecting streets such as the one Kristie’s family was traveling on had no stop signs. If your child was killed in a similar chase, would you be Pursuing Justice?