Responsibility (UPDATE)

Big chase up north:

• At least one person was in custody in connection with an armed robbery following a pursuit by Chicago that began in one Northwest Side police district and ended in another Tuesday evening.

  The pursuit began after a robbery in the 6300 block of West Diversey Avenue Tuesday evening, and included at least one crash involving two police vehicles, said Chicago Police News Affairs [...].

  The chase began after 6 p.m. in the Grand Central District and ended a while later in the Jefferson Park District, police said.

Evidently, there was at least one termination order given, then countermanded by 1600X at least twice. This set off a lively discussion in our comment section, some of it flat out wrong. First up, if you've been involved in a pursuit lately, you'd notice a box at the bottom of the Pursuit Form for the exempt member re-authorizing the chase. Although rare, it has happened on occasions, the rare part being because a gold star is seldom close enough to make that sort of call on the fly. In this case, it appears 1600X was actually involved, so no problem there.

The only problem we see is the accident(s) during the chase. Any traffic crash is supposed to be an automatic termination. Period. There isn't much wiggle room in the order for that:

• GO03-03-01 III-C The continuation of a motor vehicle is prohibited whenever:
  
  1.a pursued vehicle or pursuing Department vehicle is involved in any traffic crash in which there is a probability of personal injury.

To continue pursuit following a crash is either incredibly ballsy or incredibly stupid. Maybe a little bit of both. That is where the debate should be. Because you and we all know, an XO is going to be subject to a very different form of discipline than a blue shirt who disregarded the termination order or a sergeant/lieutenant who failed to give it.

NOTE: This isn't second guessing. This is the pointing out that a directive directly applicable to the situation at hand is available. How the Department handles it is another matter completely.

UPDATE: Word is there were kids were in the car. Given the history of the offender, kidnapping was a distinct possibility. Regardless of personal feelings about the XO and her history, reauthorizing the pursuit seems to be the correct call. These are split-second decisions people and the XO carries the entirely of this one...at least on paper. In front of the Traffic Review Board is a different story.