Many things in my work life have changed since I became a cop in 1994. One of the more prominent of these is that I no longer enjoy car chases the way I used to. They’re just too damn risky, and not just for the cop and the bad guy, but for the general public as well. While maneuvering a patrol car in emergency mode at a high rate of speed is still a great fix for an adreneline junkie, it’s neither the speed nor the potential for a nasty, firey car crash that worries me now - it’s the liability.
I’ve been in dozens of car chases over the years, the most prominent of which was a 19-minute pursuit from Saginaw to Bay City where the bad guy, after fleeing from, eluding and then trying to smash into several police cars, simply pulled up into his driveway and straight into his garage with a dozen cop cars on his tail, as if his garage was a “safe zone,” like when you were young, playing some kids’ war game where you simply touched a tree and yelled “safe” when things got a little hairy. It didn’t work for this guy, however, as he failed to set up a mutually agreed-upon “safe zone” prior to engaging us in this ridiculous pursuit. 
In any case, the thing with pursuits now is they can still be fun and challenging in a demented sort of way, but there are way too many risks involved, and the potential for injury - and certainly for hefty civil litigation should somebody be badly injured or killed - often outweight the benefits of chasing and catchng the bad guy. I suppose if society is ok with cops letting most fleeing bad guys get away, them I’m good with it too. Plus, I try to think of my wife, child, mother or someone I care about coming home from a day at school or a shopping trip to Kroger and getting flattened by a bad guy the cops were chasing for shoplifting. That puts it into perspective.
But then there are times like the one described in this chapter where the alleged crime committed by the bad guy outweights the risk of injury in a car chase.
The report we received this day was that the man in this particular stolen car had just murdered his pastor in Detroit - shot him a few times after church - and had stolen the victim’s car. So certainly there was a clear need to get this guy off the streets.
The chase itself was quite a nail-biter, especially after we got onto I-75 amid the heavy Sunday southbound traffic. It’s funny, though, knowing there was a virtually unquestionable cause to pursue this guy, I felt totally relaxed throughout the chase. Only when it ended with the horrific crash of the suspect vehicle, did I actually get a little scrambly as I replayed the pursuit in my head through the rest of the shift. I would love to be able to talk to any of the motorists who witnessed the chase and the eventual crash that day. They certainly had a story to tell when they got back home to Metro Detroit and points beyond:
“Hey, Ed, I hear you caught a boatload of perch up North and sat next to Kid Rock at a restaurant in Traverse City last weekend!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah . . . but listen to what happened on the way home just outside of Saginaw. . . ”
Not exactly Chamber of Commerce material for the greater Saginaw, area, but take your publicity where you can get it, I always say.
Looking back on this incident, the one thing that really stuck with me the most - and I wrote this as an aside to the chapter after it was finished - was, post chase, standing next to the suspect vehicle, watching all the cars on I-75 at a stand still and listening to the hum of grasshoppers and the songs of the early evening birds. It really was a gorgeous evening, all things considered.
In this line of work, sometimes you have to take your moments of inspiration where you can find them.
By the way, if you happen to be reading this and are inspired to do so, sign the guest book, or leave a comment. I’d love to know if anybody actually reads this stuff.
The next entry will be “Trick or Treat,” a recap of a night I still think about often . . . even 10 years later.
Thanks for stopping by.