ASP: Keeping the public safe while pursing fleeing vehicles
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — When doing police pursuits, Arkansas State police say their main priority is keeping the public safe.
Mike Hager, secretary of the Department of Public Safety and the director of State Police, says one of its troopers was driving in a residential area in Fayetteville when he noticed 20-year-old Noah Cargill was driving recklessly.
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“He was trying to intervene to get the suspect stopped. He went ahead and called in pursuit,” he said.
Hager says the trooper wasn’t able to catch up to Cargill who went on to crash into David Pemberton head-on and killed him in the process.
“The trooper did not see this crash take place. It did not happen in the camera range. The trooper drove up on the crash,” he said.
He says it’s unclear if Cargill knew he was being pursued but in these types of situations, troopers have a decision to make.
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“Either perform some type of intervention to get him stopped or have to make the call to discontinue that pursuit,” he said.
According to data from ASP, in total it had 3,725 vehicle pursuits from Jan. 2016 to Dec. 2023.
“In 2016, we started keeping records, very detailed records about our pursuits because the problem was getting worse and worse and worse,” he said.
925 ended in tactical vehicle intervention which is a pursuit tactic where the trooper hits the fleeing vehicle to turn it sideways abruptly.
Hager says, “That’s a dangerous tactic to employ for our trooper, but that’s what’s safest for the public.”
There have been a total of 14 suspect deaths as the result of TVIs from 2016 to the end of 2023 and zero civilian deaths according to Hager.
To train for police pursuits, Hager says, troopers will spend about 76 hours on a driving track.
But first, they start with learning the basics of vehicle dynamics.
“They go through a cones course. They have to successfully complete that cones course under time. It’s very strict,” he said.
Hager says troopers are routinely re-trained and can receive additional training depending on the circumstances.
“They go back to the track and they fine-tune those skills that they learned initially,” he said.
Ultimately, state police say they try to avoid deadly situations like what happened to Pemberton.
Hager says, “It’s the worst phone call that we received, you know, related to that so matters like this, it’s just absolutely sickening.”
He also says the dashcam video of the incident has not been released because the prosecuting attorney has not reached a resolution yet and the investigation is still ongoing.
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