Mondays for Cops

This entry is courtesy of Chris's Educational MySpace. This is what he was doing while we were frolicking at the park. Please note that names are edited to protect us from being sued.


Me and another officer were serving Westville warrants in a nearby town. We had just attempted to serve a warrant, but no one was home so we left the residence. We started driving away and passed a vehicle that pulled into the driveway that we had just left. The other officer backed the unit up and drove back towards the residence. As we approached the residence, the driver approached us and I observed the passenger door open. I then asked the driver where the passenger was. The driver replied, “I don’t know, [the passenger] just took off on foot.” I ran around to the back yard and observed the passenger of the vehicle running across the field, approximately 100 yards away. At that time, I began to chase the subject, ordering the subject to stop repeatedly, believing the subject to be the subject of the Westville warrant. The subject did not comply and continued running. At that time, I and the other Officer called in a foot pursuit. I and the other officer continued to chase the subject for approximately 1.5 miles, over barbed wire fences and through woods and heavy brush. There were also sections of barbed wire fence lying on the ground, camouflaged by leaves and debris. These booby traps worked great as deterrents and were conducive to nose plants and/or chin skids. (Note: we were in a holler, so everything was on a slope.) The handheld radio did not work because of the mountain, so I was running while yelling into my cell phone. Me and the other Officer repeatedly ordered the subject to stop, but the subject continued to run. I ran back to the unit (approx .25 mi in a straight line) to drive to the other side of the holler while the other officer continued chasing the subject. As I approached the other side of the holler in the unit, the other Officer had the subject detained. The subject, who was not wearing shoes, had bruised and bloody feet and the clothes were torn from running through the barbed wire, rocks. The subject was identified and wasn't even the person we were looking for, but was found to have a warrant non-bondable through Sheriff’s Dept. We were not looking for this subject! the subject got a charge of Attempting to escape detention or arrest. All we got was bloodied hands from going over the barbed wire fence, paperwork, and screaming muscles. And a good story.Moral: don't run unless you are sure you are the one we are looking for. Save us all a lot of trouble.

As a postscript, we are very interested in hearing the story from the Other Officer's point of view, since he did about 1/2 mile more than Chris and actually caught the 19 year old shoeless jackrabbit (rabbit can be omitted for another noun in light of the circumstance). It can also be added that both officers were in dire need of a drink and a long break to recover. It's not easy to run up and down a mountain with all that extra gear. We would also like to add that the area officer who came to assist was a 300+ lb woman who didn't look very excited about running. Both of our officers have recovered very nicely pending a hot shower and a long night's sleep.