Sunday, March 1, 2009

I've Got One Taking Off On Me!!!

One of the most thrilling, most fun, and most terrifying things a police officer can do is to get involved in a vehicle pursuit. I love pursuits (don't tell my Chief that though).

There is simply nothing like the challenge of keeping up with a driver who feels they have nothing to lose, while at the same time having to watch for other traffic, pedestrians and road conditions because you have EVERYTHING to lose.

I have seen stuff that is straight out of COPS.

While chasing a stolen car, I watched as the driver hit dips and speed bumps at 50+, bottoming out on each one and throwing sparks and dust everywhere. Little pieces of road were bouncing off my windshield every time he bottomed out.

80 miles per hour on surface streets is scary as hell. Don't ask me how I know.

I have watched a car literally fall apart, right out from under the driver. While chasing yet another stolen car, the bad guy was driving that little Saturn so hard the catalytic converter overheated and was dropping glowing bits of metal on the roadway. IT'S ONLY A SATURN DUDE!

I have chased cars until the wheels have literally fallen off (of their car, not mine silly!). I have chased drivers into the projects, solo, all the while asking myself "What in Hell are you doing you idiot?!"

I have chased motorcycles into power poles, trucks onto train tracks, and bicycles into parked cars.

When it's all over, and the adrenaline has worn off, you want to go out and do it all over again.

There is truly nothing like a good car chase...

16 comments:

TheBronze said...

True that!

Anonymous said...

I'm sure my husband feels the same way. And I'm confident lots of police wives, like me, feel a little worried about that fact. Be safe out there.

Socialism Sucks said...

I had always suspected cops loved high speed pursuits and you have confirmed it. After all, who wouldn't?

I am something of a connoisseur of the pursuit and post particularly good ones to my blog. Here are 4 of my favorites although one is not an actual pursuit as such

http://socialismforlaughs.blogspot.com/2008/08/sunday-fun.html

http://socialismforlaughs.blogspot.com/2008/11/some-excellent-high-speed-driving.html

http://socialismforlaughs.blogspot.com/2008/11/saturday-fun.html

http://socialismforlaughs.blogspot.com/2008/11/busted.html

Anonymous said...

I'm curious what Mrs "Smith" thinks about this confession! LOL :)

*Goddess* said...

I drive a Kia and I don't think I ever laughed so hard as when I read a news story about a guy that tried to run from the police.....in a Kia. I just hoped he didn't compound his stupid mistake by driving uphill....

Mrs. "Smith" said...

Mrs. Smith likes driving fast, too. And I've been in the car on a ride along when he's driven fast. It's a lot of fun.

Front Porch Society said...

I'll say AMEN to that! :) lol. I think we are all a bit adrenaline junkies if you really dig deep! Nothing like a good chase to get the blood boiling! :)

Berserk said...

We've got a pretty stringent pursuit policy, you damn near have to kill someone. I've only been on a couple of pursuits in my career.

On the other hand, I do enjoy a good foot chase. And by "good," I mean one that I win. :)

Anonymous said...

I do envy you, Mrs "Smith"! I'd freak! LOL :)

Officer "Smith" said...

Yeah, she was also in the patrol car with me the only time I have accidentally run a red light.

She said "It's red... It's RED... IT'S RED!!!"

I had to throw the lights on and hang a hard right turn to make it look good.

anon said...

So that's how you guys put up with all the BS in your jobs, hanging on for the next car chase. Awesome.

Mad Jack said...

Ok, I can't resist. I outran you guys back in the early 1970s. It was easy... no contest at all.

But I'm not going to tell how I did it. Instead...

Back in the bad old days when 300 BHP was not a lot of muscle and traffic was a lot lighter, there was a man named Jack Roush who taught auto mechanics at Monroe County Community College (MCCC) in Monroe, MI. Some of you may be familiar with the Roush Performance company in Detroit, and if not you can look it up.

Jack Roush kept his race car in the auto shop and worked on between races, which was really something to see. Being a young man, Jack would occasionally take his race car out to the tarmac behind the shop and pull a few hole shots just to see how things were running, and because it was fun.

MCCC had three campus cops at that time. One young man who was tall and one heck of a nice guy. I can't remember his name, but his attitude around the college kids was great. Another was an equally nice older man, probably a few years away from retirement name Browney. Again, a great guy, friendly to the kids, all of whom respected him. The third officer was named Pathoon, and he was kind of reserved. He was still a good man, though, and once when I ran a stop sign right in front of him he didn't bust me for it. He was also a real good shot and had won several pistol tournaments among police. Out of the three, Pathoon was the most 'official'.

And so, you see, one day Jack was pulling hole shots in his red hot 429 Ford mustang and Pathoon caught him at it. The way I understood it, Pathoon wasn't too happy with Jack and gave him some heck about it, but didn't issue any tickets. One mitigating factor might have been that Jack did all the maintenance on the campus squad cars and generally did faculty car maintenance at a discounted rate, but perhaps not.

Anyway, that's my coolest speed story, and it's true to the best of my own recollection.

Officer "Smith" said...

Just putting two and two together here, and I may be coming up with 72, but could Mad Jack possibly be Jack Roush?

*Goddess* said...

I forgot to mention that this line of your post really made me laugh: "I have seen stuff that is straight out of COPS." I thought, "You ARE COPS!"..lol

Officer "Smith" said...

I have literally turned to my partner and said "Holy SHIT dude! That's straight outta COPS!"

Mad Jack said...

Officer Smith: No, I'm not Jack Roush. I was a student in his class at MCCC. Jack Roush was (and I would suppose still is) a polite, affable man of small, wiry stature. His lectures were excellent, and I got the best automotive education possible thanks to Jack. If you wanted to build an engine from the block up and put it into a car, Jack Roush was available with guidance and instructional help that couldn't be found anywhere else.

Plus it didn't hurt having a red Ford Mustang race car in the MCCC shop - the precursor to the Tijuana Taxi.