Tools of the trade: Police use stop sticks, radios to catch criminals

Of the 117 times in the past year Georgia State Patrol troopers have used the PIT maneuver across the state, six of those have been in Whitfield County and one in Murray County.

Many law enforcement agencies in Georgia don’t use the PIT (pursuit intervention technique), which involves strategically hitting a fleeing car with a police car to spin it around in hopes the driver will stop. Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office Maj. John Gibson said local deputies were authorized to use the PIT maneuver, but about 10 years ago the department stopped partly because training officers was expensive and time-consuming.

“Generally, speaking, we found in our agency the PIT maneuvers were resulting in more damage to our fleet than we could really afford to have, and we just decided not to do it any longer,” Gibson said. “We are fortunate to have the state patrol where officers are trained in PIT.”

GSP Cpl. David Phillips said a state patrol trooper executed a PIT maneuver during a late July chase in which a Tunnel Hill woman fleeing from law enforcement had her vehicle knocked but drove back onto the road anyhow and hit another vehicle.

Jessica Victoria Underwood, 23, of 104 Bloomingdale Way, was charged by the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office with felony probation violation, felony theft by receiving a stolen vehicle, DUI-drugs, fleeing or attempting to elude police officers (misdemeanor and felony), two counts of failure to stop at a stop sign, willful obstruction of law officers, two counts of reckless driving, speeding, driving on the wrong side of the road, improper lane change and a safety belt violation because of the incident.

The state patrol also “pitted” a South Carolina 14-year-old in April believed to have taken a family vehicle to Georgia. Officials said the teen rammed the back end of a Catoosa County sheriff’s office car while he was trying to get away and was eventually charged by the Tunnel Hill Police Department with aggravated assault on a police officer, fleeing to elude and reckless driving.

Local law enforcement agencies can call in the state patrol if a PIT maneuver or other kinds of assistance are needed, but they have other techniques at their disposal. Many Whitfield sheriff’s officers carry stop sticks, or spikes, in their vehicles, but a shift supervisor has to authorize their use. The spikes don’t require as much of an investment in officer training, but they present their own set of problems, including having to set them up in a way that won’t cause innocent drivers or even pursuing officers to get caught in the trap.

Gibson said the sheriff’s office has been involved in 50 pursuits since Jan. 1, 2011. For those, they’ve deployed stop sticks four times and called the state patrol once to execute a PIT maneuver.

Lt. Chris Cooke of the Dalton Police Department said the department by policy doesn’t use the PIT maneuver either. High-speed pursuits are rare within the city limits, he said.

“We have spike strips, but they’ve not been deployed in a while,” he said.

By policy, the department conducts high-speed chases, which are defined as “speeds that would pose a serious risk to the public based on current conditions,” only if they involve “potentially serious violent suspects.”

For the sheriff’s office, the shift supervisor can also call off a chase, in essence waiting it out until the fleeing vehicle runs out of gas and have officers in another jurisdiction ready to catch the violator at that time. Calling off a chase is “pretty rare,” Gibson said.

“Most (chases) are drug- or alcohol-related when people are out late at night,” he said.

The state patrol uses other kinds of interventions and maneuvers too, including a method in which several police vehicles box in a violator, forcing the driver either to stop or to run into one of the police cars.

Phillips said executing a PIT can be dangerous for everyone involved if it isn’t done correctly. Done right, the fleeing vehicle will spin but not usually flip over. Done right, no other traffic will be involved. Done right, the police officer’s vehicle might have only some scraped paint or a cracked light. Make a wrong move, and problems can ensue.

“The more you see how complicated it gets, the more you see why certain agencies won’t allow their officers to do it,” Phillips said.

The fleeing vehicle can complicate matters even more. Statistics on how many of the GSP’s 117 PIT maneuvers resulted in a death or injury weren’t immediately available, but officials said they do happen.

“Usually, once you get in the speed (range of) like 90 or 95, there’s going to be some serious injury,” Phillips said. “The PIT involves a fourth amendment issue (too) that has to do with search and seizures. It’s almost like you’re seizing (the fleeing vehicle).”

When someone fails to pull over after a police vehicle turns on a siren and blue lights though, and starts driving in a way that endangers the public, “they forfeit that fourth amendment right,” he said.

“They’re infringing upon everyone else’s right or privilege to travel on the highways,” he said. “Once they become unsafe and they become aggressive toward other drivers or other public motorists, that’s when they forfeit their fourth amendment right.”

Phillips said law enforcement personnel have to be trained initially over several days and on a closed course in executing a PIT and have follow-up training periodically.

Even when a PIT doesn’t work, there are other techniques that do, he said.

“They can’t outrun the radio,” Phillips said. “Even if they’re staying ahead of the first car, there are other cars starting to set up.”

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Tools of the trade: Police use stop sticks, radios to catch criminals

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