Sample Scenario: Uniformed Officer and Vehicle Pursuit

On a very cold winter evening while on patrol in a marked police vehicle driving south on 12th Street, I observed three vehicles driving northbound. My attention was drawn to the third of these passing vehicles. The driver and I locked eyes, and I instantaneously knew "he was dirty." After the vehicle passed, I continued watching it in my rear view mirror, and I observed the driver watching me in his rear view mirror. I made a U-turn, and the driver sped up. I activated my emergency lights, signaling the vehicle to pull over and stop; however, the driver increased his speed.

I advised the dispatcher that I was in pursuit of a suspicious vehicle, giving the description of the car, the license number and the description of the driver. After several blocks, the police supervisor came over the air and asked the reason for the pursuit. I responded: "Speed and suspicious behavior." The supervisor, for reasons of community and officer safety, ordered to stop the pursuit immediately. The driver continued on, and I returned to my patrol area.

Several minutes later the dispatcher aired a lookout for a vehicle with a similar description that had been used in an armed robbery. Numerous police vehicles responded to the area to search for the vehicle. Ten minutes later, the vehicle was located, but the suspect had vanished.

It was only after the car had been identified as stolen and used in the armed robbery that the officer reflected on the following experiences.

The driver of the car was paying too close attention to the officer. More often than not, when suspect's and officer's eyes meet, the suspect breaks the contact quickly. In this case, the subject continued to look at the officer. The officer realized retrospectively that the subject was looking and probably wondering if the officer "made him." The officer believes now that subject was trying to read the officer's behaviors.
The officer noticed the driver's side window was down. This was a particularly cold day. Yet, the driver's window was open. The significance of this fact was apparent when the car was recovered. The subject broke the window out in order to gain access to the car.
Although the officer noticed that there was no front tag and that the inspection sticker on the windshield was from a jurisdiction that required back and front tags, the full meaning of this didn't become apparent until later. The jurisdiction of the inspection sticker was different from the jurisdiction of the back tag.