From horseback to helicopters: Police pursuits in the 21st century

A LAPD vehicle sits parked outside police headquarters in Downtown LA. (Whitney Ashton/Annenberg Media)

A man who led police on a high-speed chase that ended in an hours-long SWAT standoff last year was sentenced to 33 years in California state prison on Tuesday, Dec. 1.

Nolan Perez flees from police on June 9, 2014. A year after the high-speed chase and standoff, Perez was sentenced to 33 years in California state prison on Dec. 1, 2015. (Courtesy of NBC4 Southern California)

The judge refused to grant Nolan Perez’s motion to withdraw his no contest plea from June 24, 2014, to two counts of assault on a peace officer with a semiautomatic weapon and one count each of criminal threats against an ex-girlfriend and attempted carjacking.

The 42-year-old led police on a pursuit from El Sereno to North Hollywood on June 9, 2014. The chase reached speeds of 100 mph on several Southern California freeways, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

During the nearly hour-long pursuit, Perez pointed a loaded semiautomatic rifle at police. He then abandoned the car in a North Hollywood neighborhood. He jumped across several rooftops and holed himself up in a home for three hours, firing at police, before authorities fired tear gas inside. No one was struck by Perez’s gunfire. SWAT officers took Perez into custody in the backyard.

Perez has a criminal record dating back to 1997, according to the DA’s Office. The felon has had multiple prior convictions, including negligent discharge of a firearm in 1997, ex-felon with a gun in 2007 and domestic violence in 2011.

Perez’s attorney E.J. Montanez told City News Service that his client chose to accept the plea deal because he could have been sentenced to life in prison if he had gone to trial.

Montanez said that Perez “doesn’t remember” the dramatic pursuit or standoff because he was “highly under the influence of alcohol and drugs prior to that.”

“He has a tumor in the brain that alters his behavior, especially when he is under the influence of drugs and alcohol ... He did not mean to act the way he did,” Montanez said in interview with City News Service.

The manhunt and standoff forced school closures, lockdowns and neighborhood evacuations.

Dangerous pursuits like the one involving Perez are common in Southern California. Los Angeles ranks as the deadliest U.S. county for police pursuits, but more than half of people killed are not the suspects being pursued. They are actually innocent bystanders. Police pursuits occur several times a day throughout the region and the pursuits that end in crashes often result in injuries or fatalities.

The LAPD, along with LASD and the CHP, all have different policies when it comes to pursuing vehicles in Los Angeles County. (Whitney Ashton/Annenberg Media)

Police pursuit policy varies depending on agency

The California Highway Patrol defines a pursuit as “an event involving one or more law enforcement officers attempting to apprehend a suspect operating a motor vehicle while the suspect is attempting to avoid arrest (or detention) by using high speed driving or other evasive tactics, such as driving off a highway, turning suddenly, or driving in a legal manner but willfully failing to yield to the officer's signal to stop.”

The Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and the CHP all have separate pursuit policies.

LAPD’s pursuit policy outlines the factors involved in initiating a vehicle pursuit, including “whether there is an unreasonable risk to the public’s safety, to the pursuing officers’ safety or the safety of the occupant(s) in the fleeing vehicle.”

LASD’s pursuit policy makes mention of vehicle operation and tactics, offensive tactics, roadblocks, pursuit termination technology/devices, passing, surveillance mode and use of firearms during pursuits. The sheriff’s department will only pursue someone under certain conditions, according to LA County Assistant Sheriff Todd Rogers.

And to minimize the likelihood of a pursuit, sheriff’s deputies who intend to make a vehicle stop should be within close proximity of the vehicle (when it is practical and safe) before activating their red light and/or siren, according to LASD’s policy.

“A lot of our pursuits are canceled,” Rogers said.

CHP officers should not initiate a pursuit “if the dangers of pursuing or continuing the pursuit are too great,” according to a redacted version of the policy.

Before giving chase, “the officer must balance the known or reasonably suspected offense(s), and the apparent need for immediate capture against the risks to peace officers, innocent motorists, and others to protect the public. A pursuit should only be initiated to apprehend a violator who refuses to voluntarily comply with the law requiring them to stop.”

California law grants public agencies blanket immunity from civil liability that may arise from vehicle pursuits. In 2005, the California Legislature enacted SB 719, a bill that increases penalties for fleeing in a motor vehicle from police and requires each agency to adopt periodic training relative to pursuit policies in order to qualify for immunity.

Twitter accounts like @LAPolicePursuit provide alerts for pursuits taking place in and around Los Angeles County.

The history of police pursuits

“The police pursuit has been around since horseback,” said Geoffrey Alpert, a professor at the University of South Carolina and a leading researcher on police chases.

“In the 1980s, they were still chasing until the wheels fell off. The police would continue to chase until the suspect stopped or crashed.”

Now, Alpert says, there is a much more restrictive view of police pursuits — many major departments and agencies restrict chases to violent crimes.

“If you’re looking at the need to apprehend and the risk, that’s the balance that makes sense. You’re only going to put people's lives at risk for a violent crime, not for a property crime or a traffic offense.”

Behind the wheel of a pursuit

Sgt. Scott Chapman of the Pico Rivera Sheriff’s Station has been involved and witnessed several pursuits both while he was a deputy and now in his role as sergeant.

As a sergeant, the department veteran of 21 years manages the pursuit and ensures the deputies are following LASD’s pursuit policy and doing so in a safe manner.

“When you’re younger — and I was there — if you’re in a pursuit, a lot of people have a tendency to get tunnel vision,” he said. Emotions and ego can play a big role when an officer is engaged in a pursuit, he said.

Training begins in the police academy where different aspects of a car chase including tactics, emergency driving and physical aspects are reviewed. LASD’s pursuit policy is also studied and reviewed in the classroom.

Emergency Vehicle Operations Center (EVOC) allows entry level and in-service officers to learn precision vehicle placement at slow and high speeds and in reverse in a controlled environment on a track. In addition, officers are familiarized with different technology and tactics that can help safely end vehicle pursuits, like the use of spike strips.

In some situations, LASD’s helicopters provide assistance during a pursuit by providing aerial surveillance and communication to pursuing units and supervisors monitoring the pursuit.

While the airships may not stop a pursuit, they can monitor it from a safe distance. If a pursuit is deemed a little bit reckless and dangerous for everybody involved, then the sheriff’s department may go into surveillance mode where the chopper will follow the suspect’s vehicle and the officers will back off without lights and sirens, according to Chapman.

“The thing that always comes to my mind is you’re chasing somebody in a pursuit and an elderly person, a mother, a father, a kid gets injured because of this pursuit was it really worth it? So it takes a lot of maturity and looking at the big picture when it comes to pursuing cars,” Chapman said.

“There’s a lot of risk here. Is it really worth it?”

Sgt. Scott Chapman of the Pico Rivera Sheriff's Station discusses the inherent risk that comes along with engaging in a vehicle pursuit and what role emotions play when an officer is playing a dangerous game of high-speed "cat and mouse" with a criminal. (Whitney Ashton/Annenberg Media)