Wednesday, August 7, 2002

On July 27, my life changed. Spending over 30 years as an EMT/paramedic in New York State and a career with the criminal justice system did not prepare me for what I saw.

You see, my wife and I had just traveled through the intersection minutes before Lorraine McCrary ended her high-speed cross-county pursuit and killed Chuck Vicha. I realized that it could have been us.

Initially we thought this was an unfortunate accident until I was informed that this was the result of a high-speed police chase originating in Luthersville. An innocent man died. This man should not have died. The actions of the Luthersville Police were as much responsible as those of Ms. McCrary.

Don't get me wrong. I know that we can't prohibit police chases entirely. But they can and should be curbed. I do not want our citizens putting their lives in danger everytime they are on the road because a police chase might come their way.

The police are our paid servants and I respect and honor every police officer. But if they are serving us, as most police agencies say, "to serve and protect," then we are their "customers." As a "customer" I don't want my life endangered by anyone.

On that night I may have been served, but I wasn't protected. What were the Luthersville Officers thinking of? Why didn't they drop back once they entered the more congested areas? The 50-mph speed through The Avenue should have been sufficient reason to curtail the pursuit.

Was catching someone fleeing from a minor motor vehicle accident worth more than Mr. Vicha's life? Except in the most felonious of situations, chases should stop before they start. An old police chief friend of mine once said, "nobody can outrun the Motorola."

I implore the community and our officials to join me in raising our voices to the governor's office to study the crisis and deal accordingly. I propose an ad-hoc committee, consisting of public officials, police chiefs and police officers and citizens to review and recommend policies that would be statewide.

Local policies are not adequate. Peachtree City police have a restrictive policy on chases. Do our neighbors? How do we prevent these chases from entering our city? Perhaps the laws should be changed as to how we deal with those fleeing the police.

Please, let us deal with this swiftly. I don't want to see another person die.

Kenneth M. Palmer

Peachtree City

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