Thumbs up! - VPD
Good work Officers...

There's a reason people cities have no pursuit policies - public safety.

Thank You VPD for another thug off Our streets! If people realize some will never learn.. they have given chances to him and I am hoping they just lock him up for good this time.. Seems to be the best thing..

Think of it as collateral damage.

If the police repeatedly make it a habit to discontinue pursuits it won't take long for word to get around that to get away, simply flee. Video, statement and warrants are fine but you have to know exactly who committed the crime or who is driving, not who owns the car, and therein lies the rub. Also, many people simply report their vehicles stolen after fleeing and eluding the police. Deciding when a sufficient level of danger exists to discontinue a pursuit is probably fairly simple and I would think would be based mostly on amount of traffic present, time of day and location. These are all things that only the officer can determine at that moment. I hope VPD does not hamper the enforcement efforts of their officers with a policy such as stated by midnightrodeo.

I guess we can agree to disagree. You're certainly entitled to your assessment and opinions just as I am mine. Do some digging on the policy just for grins though. I do not now nor have I ever supported criminal activity. Everything else aside im glad he's in custody, no one was seriously injured, and I hope the guy goes away for a long time but I think we all know that's not likely.

Midnight rodeo, to call me ignorant for supporting the police and not the criminal tells me all I need to know about where you are coming from. I have not seen VPD's pursuit policy but common since would tell me that ALL pursuits are inherently dangerous, therefore if that is what their policy says then all a bad guy needs to know is to flee the cops and if they chase you, then the cops are now the bad guys. How about instead we send the message that if you commit a crime we will arrest you and if you flee, we will not only chase you and catch you, but we will send you to prison. Let me say again, fleeing in a vehicle is a Felony, so VPD was chasing a fleeing felon. Maybe VICAD could post VPD's pursuit policy?

You People can try to justify this All that you want to But the bottom line is And something that is not debatable Is that a policy was violated with no exigent circumstances period. It takes a seasoned officer to make good judgement calls and gosh there's just not very many of those around here.

I want these people off the street just as bad as the next guy and put away for good. But I think it should be done safely. They could have gotten statements, video, in-car video from when the chase started, then got a warrant to pick him up later. There was no need to violate policy in this case based on the information we were given.

Now lets look at another scenario...

Tomorrow this same clown decided to shoot someone and it happened to be your cousin, uncle, brother, wife, or kid, would you be equally as happy to thank the police for letting him go the night before when they had the chance to catch him? Didn't think so!!!

Either way, he'll probably get probation and be hanging around with you and me inside of a week.

I say good catch, cops. Chase em till they are caught. Anyone that runs from the cops and gets caught even deserves a little extra effort on the part of the cops at the time of arrest.

Do your homework before posting such an ignorant statement goodtimes. VPD has an anti-pursuit policy in place which directs officers to terminate any pursuit which becomes dangerous unless the use of deadly force is justified and for misdemeanor theft, it is not. The reason for that policy is that there is more than one person whom believes that prosecution for a simple theft is not so important that we are willing to risk a human life. If the 20 year old had been killed in the accident would you be using that same explanation to tell the mother why her son wouldn't be joining them on Christmas Morning? Didn't think so.

Poor judgment by the police?? You have got to be kidding! That is the kind of backwards thinking that results in probation or light sentencing for these criminals. By the way, evading from the cops in a vehicle is a Felony. Send a message to the criminals by giving them prison time for crimes like this. Otherwise please post a sign on your property that says "dear police, if my stuff is taken, do not chase the bad guy". I for one salute the police for being on the spot in this case and in catching the bad guy. Good job VPD!

Very poor judgement on the part of the Police. The suspect had struck a fence earlier in the pursuit and yet continued to evade. It should have been clear at that point that he would stop at nothing to get away. It was a simple theft that the suspect was being pursued for not a robbery. Why did they continue to pursue this suspect for a misdemeanor and put everyone's lives at risk. Luckily no one was hurt any more seriously than they were.

BTW, I go here all the time to see what kind of fun these folks have been getting into prior to the events we read about. Rarely are they first time offenders.
http://odyssey.vctx.org/OdysseyPA/def...

LOL!!! These are the kind of folks I like to read about later that get put on some silly probation. What do we have in Victoria, 15,000 people on one kind of probation or another?

Judges and Jurys how about we start a nice new trend in Victoria by saying to the criminals... "You want Probation, go commit your crimes elsewhere".
And yes, that includes ex-sheriffs, prominant Victorians, and any other criminal types. Not just the late night clowns that can't succesfully rob a convenience store.

Advocate, do us a favor and find out how many Victorians are on Probation. I thnk we will be surprised.

All together, gang...nobody ever said that crooks are smart.