Arkansas Trooper Trashes Cruiser Chasing Speeding Dodge Charger

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People have a lot of hot takes about this Arkansas trooper trashing his cruiser while in pursuit of a speeding Dodge Charger. A lot of the opinions are based on emotion, likely after some negative interactions with a cop, if not from an overinflated sense of strong arm justice.

Why no chase policies are being reversed lately.

We honestly feel torn with a lot of police pursuits. There’s obviously a balance between public safety and apprehending dangerous suspects which has to be struck. Unfortunately, too many people oversimply this difficult principle, whether they think police chases should be abolished or cops should treat fleeing suspects ruthlessly.

For example, one automotive site argued after covering this chase that pursuits “rarely” result in a suspect being caught. That’s obviously false, but boy that sure plays up with the emotional opinion that cops are all reckless douches. Some are, that’s for sure, but boy is that a broad brush to paint an entire profession.

This chase is interesting. We don’t get any information about why the trooper, who was sitting on the side of a frontage road, tried pulling this Dodge Charger over. Was it just for speeding? The Mopar didn’t appear to be going faster than other cars. Did a plate reader get a hit for a warrant? We don’t know, but that sure would help sway our opinion on what happens next.

At first our suspect pulls onto a gore point and pretends to comply. Then he drives to a gas station, almost like he’s testing the trooper. As soon as the cop steps out the Mopar is off with screeching tires and the chase is on.

In hindsight, which the trooper didn’t have, this guy was a ghost from the get-go. We’ve seen police catch suspects who smoke them at first like this, so you can’t legitimately say cops should just give up because they’ll never catch up.

Also, dashcams don’t show what the human eye perceives, especially in the dark. The trooper probably still had a visual on the suspect until his car gave out.

However, during the high-speed pursuit the trooper launches his cruiser at a crested intersection. The impact on the undercarriage when the car comes back down tears off the oil pan, leading the engine to seize. We’ve seen police launch their cruisers like this and not rip off the oil pan, so this is a bit unusual.

Some are arguing that since the trooper got the plate number he can just go to the guy’s house and make an arrest there. It’s like these people don’t understand stolen plates are a thing. So many who run from cops don’t have a legit plate on their car these days.

Ultimately, we can’t really judge whether or not what this trooper did was justified because we don’t know why he was chasing this guy. Maybe he’s a wanted felon who murdered someone? Or maybe he was going 5 mph over the speed limit. Without that info, we just can’t say either way.

Image via Hot Pursuits/YouTube

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