Plan would use GPS in chases

To the editor:The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday heard a case on whether a Georgia police officer used excessive force when he ended a high-speed chase by ramming a suspect's car with his police cruiser.

The suspect's vehicle went down an embankment and crashed, leaving the driver paralyzed from the neck down.

As a 17-year veteran of law enforcement, I've been in the same unenviable position as that Georgia officer.

In high-speed pursuits, police are faced with three dangerous options: continue chasing the car until it stops or crashes, discontinue the pursuit and allow a dangerous criminal to escape, or ram the fleeing car.

All of these options place innocent lives in danger.

It is because of situations like the one in Georgia that I have proposed legislation to create the Rev. Nathanial Cole Urban Pursuit Grant to help urban police departments afford GPS tracking devices that can be fired from a police car onto a vehicle.

These devices allow police officers to follow fleeing vehicles from a safe distance and at a safe speed.

Fourteen Missourians died during high-speed pursuits in 2005. Seven of those Missourians were not directly involved in the chase.

From 2000 to 2005, 54 Missourians died in such crashes, and 32 were not directly involved.

Last year, the Rev. Nathanial Cole, a preacher for than 14 years in St. Louis, was killed after his Chevy Blazer was hit head-on by a vehicle being chased by police.

It's time we equipped our police forces with the tools they need before one more Missourian becomes a statistic.

JEFF ROORDA, State Representative, 102nd District, Barnhart, Mo.