South Carolina Mayor Bans Police Pursuit on Foot

[Harlowe]

Sooo as long as you can chase them down in a car - you're good. Maybe the police should be issued Segways.

http://www.officer.com/web/online/Top-N ... ot/1$48500

That interview is painful to watch, this woman is a childish idiot.

[Lurker]

From the regional AP

The mayor of a small South Carolina town said Monday she banned her police officers from chasing suspects after an officer suffered a foot injury while pursuing a man with drugs.

"There are to be no more foot chases when a suspect runs. I do not want anyone chasing any suspects whatsoever," Wellford Mayor Sallie Peake wrote in her ban several weeks ago.

When a WSPA-TV reporter asked her whether the policy would impede officers from stopping crime, she became defensive and chastised him before answering in mock praise.

"You got you a story, thank God! You are so sweet! You got you a story on a woman in Wellford! Hallelujah! I'm so proud of you," she told the reporter Friday, clapping.

Peake said she issued the order after the town had to pay workers compensation for an officer out of work several days for chasing a "guy who had some crack on him a piece of crack on him."

"There was no crime, no such thing as a crime," Peake said. "If he was breaking into somebody's house, to me that would be a crime, or if he was stealing something. ... I wish they would get whoever's selling it. Then that would be worth chasing somebody down for."

The mayor of 14 years said officers also totaled two town-issued cars in July, though her order applies only to foot chases. She said she doesn't know what the officers were doing when they crashed, other than driving too fast, but the town had to buy replacement vehicles. She said details could be obtained from the state Highway Patrol, which could not immediately locate the reports.

"We're a small town. We can only do so much with so much money," Peake said, adding the Spartanburg County town of roughly 2,100 people includes many senior citizens on fixed incomes. "The city is in safe shape."

"You don't have to get out here and hurt yourself to solve a crime," she said she told her eight officers.

I wonder if this is more about her opinion of what a crime is and less about the money. She certainly seems unhinged and childish. That reporter deserves an award for the way he handled himself.

[Embar Angylwrath]

I see her point, but her delivery was waaaaay off.

Some crimes are worth pursuing, some aren't. Spending police resources on prostitution, minor drug offenses, etc., is a misuse.. or rather, an unwise allocation of police resources, in my opinion.

[Harlowe]

I agree that a person in possession is not worth the chase, but she made an idiotic decision eliminating pursuits on foot no matter what the circumstance is.

[Lurker]

I wonder if that's what she meant when she said the Chief knows what she meant. Maybe she just sucks at writing memos. Still, based on her attitude and communication skills she has no business being a decision maker.

[Harlowe]

But when the interviewer tried to pose other scenarios, she said "what does it say" ...then "well that's what I mean".

[Lurker]

It was almost as if she had no idea what she had written in that memo. She seemed genuinely shocked that the reporter thought all chases were banned, and then just turned into a rude bitch when he tried to point it out.

[Garrdor]