All roads don’t lead to Rome; some are dead-ends!

There is an old saying that goes “all roads lead to Rome,” but our local criminals have found recently that some roads lead to well … nowhere. Some of our pursuits over the past few months have seen people turn down dead-end roads in their effort to outrun deputies in Vernon County. Turning down a dead-end road when you are trying to get away makes it more difficult because the only available option at that point is to give up or work a little harder and run on foot. A couple of years ago, we installed GPS locators on our patrol vehicles allowing dispatch to monitor where they were during pursuits or when communication is lost with the deputy. When these pursuits take place, it gives the deputies an even better advantage because they know what is coming before they get there. It is starting to become common for dispatch to tell the deputy “you are heading to a dead-end” during a pursuit. Having that knowledge allows the deputy to be prepared to stop and get out of the car even quicker.

Dead-end roads, driveways they thought were roads, fields they thought led to roads and did not, are all starting to become a common place for pursuits to end. And if that was not enough help, it is also starting to become common for criminals to run during a shift change at the Sheriff’s Office, meaning there are twice as many deputies on duty for a brief period. During one pursuit, three deputies were getting ready to get off their shift while two others had just come on for the overnight shift when a vehicle decided to run. Picking the moment when there were five deputies ready to respond was either good timing or bad luck, but it works out great for us. One such pursuit saw enough deputies in the area, they were able to spike the tires twice, forcing the vehicle to a stop and deflating all four tires. It also makes it a little harder to run on foot when there are five deputies chasing you.

Just like the common phrase “that’s not mine” when we find drugs in someone’s pocket, we find a common phrase after a pursuit is “I didn’t know you were trying to pull me over.” Because this is so common, I thought it would be good to go over in case anyone finds themselves in this predicament. There are some good tips that can save a lot of headaches and even jail time! The first one is, if you see red and blue lights behind you and they appear to be following you, they are, so pull over! The next one is that when a Sheriff’s Deputy is at an intersection with their lights on and they have spike strips thrown across the road, they are trying to get you to stop. And the hardest one to remember, when you do stop and get out of your car to go for a quick healthy jog and hear someone yell “Sheriff’s Office, stop!” that would be a good time to stop! Not all roads lead to freedom, and just like the decisions you make in life, be careful what choices you make, and be careful what roads you pick to travel.