After lights, sirens on I-94, lots of questions

[question everything]

StarTribune.com
After lights, sirens on I-94, lots of questions

By RANDY FURST, Star Tribune

February 4, 2009

More than a month after Sam Salter wound up in the Ramsey County jail for two nights, the 40-year-old adjunct college instructor from Hudson, Wis., is still fuming. "You feel totally helpless," he said. At the end of a New Year's Eve traffic stop on Interstate 94 in St. Paul, State Patrol Sgt. Carrie Rindal rammed Salter's 2001 Toyota Sienna van, causing $1,500 damage to his vehicle, and arrested him at gunpoint while his three children, ages 2, 3 and 6, sat in the van. His wife had to pick up the kids as he was taken to jail. Rindal said Salter was attempting to flee. He said he was merely looking for a safe place to pull over.

The Ramsey County attorney's office declined to charge Salter after reviewing the evidence, including a video of the stop. "It was our belief there was insufficient evidence to prove that the suspect was knowingly fleeing police, and that is what he had been arrested for," said Paul Gustafson, a county attorney spokesman. In late January, the State Patrol mailed Salter a ticket for making an illegal lane change. He faces no other charges.

The squad car's video shows that Rindal first noticed Salter about 11:40 p.m. Dec. 31. She said in a report that she had witnessed him weaving within a lane, changing lanes without signaling and going 70 miles per hour in a 55-mph zone on I-94. She turned on her lights to pull him over, and the video shows what followed: A one-mile pursuit that ended on a side street off I-94, where Salter said he had turned to look for a safe place to pull over.

It was never a high-speed chase. After Rindal rammed Salter's car -- a police tactic sometimes used for stopping fleeing vehicles -- he stopped abruptly and emerged from the van questioning why she had hit his vehicle. Rindal emerged from her squad car and, with gun drawn, forced him against the side of his vehicle and arrested him. Salter registered zero in a preliminary alcohol-breath test. The incident raised questions among police experts who reviewed it: Should Salter have stopped on the I-94 shoulder no matter whether he considered it safe? And was Rindal right to conclude Salter was fleeing and ram his vehicle?



(snip)

Salter, who teaches oral and interpersonal communications at Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College in New Richmond, said he had had two beers during a six-hour period that day and was driving home from a family party, headed east on I-94 on the east side of St. Paul. His three children were strapped into the back seats. Traveling in the left lane, he saw Rindal's flashing patrol car lights in his rear-view mirror and thought the patrol car was trying to pass. He moved right one lane, but the patrol car moved behind him, so he concluded she wanted to stop him. He shifted three lanes to the right to get to the shoulder. "The shoulder had a big icy snowbank that did not allow me to get all the way off the freeway," Salter said. Fearful of getting hit by traffic if he stopped, Salter said he took the U.S. Hwy. 61 exit. But he did not stop there. "It's a real blind corner," he said, "so I didn't feel comfortable stopping on that. I am not sure the people behind would have time to react if they were in the right lane."

(snip)


http://www.startribune.com/local/east/38980869.html

[Why Syzygy]

1. Getting out of the car

before being asked to is a mistake.

[TwilightGardener]

5. That is true--I guess he was just upset after being deliberately rammed.

[47of74]

2. I guess cops exchange brains for badges

We have idiots like that here in Iowa who have removed their brains and handed them over to whoever handed them a badge.

[SmileyRose]

3. Why was she allowed to ram a vehicle without approval?

A 1 mile chase? Even at 55mph you are talking about 1 minute lag time to slow down and pull over.

Interesting she claimed he was speeding and the only ticket he got was changing lanes with no signal (which would have been AFTER he saw the patrol lights behind him).

GAWD.

[zipplewrath]

8. This is the real question

The guy in no way could be considered to be fleeing. Maybe so hammered, old, or otherwise impared to not notice her, or realize how long he was driving. But unless he is speeding around trying to avoid her and putting other people at risk, there's no real reason to ram him. Follow him, call it in, get some support, pull along side, i.e. think and evaluate.

[TwilightGardener]

4. Usually I have sympathy for cops, but this woman is an idiot. She could have

injured his children. He never once drove as if he was planning to suddenly pull away at high speed, and I don't blame him for wanting to stop in a safe place, especially with his children in his car.

[question everything]

6. And we did have horrible weather most of December

It either snowed or it was bitter - below zero - cold.

We stayed home New Year's eve because the thought of driving any place was just not appealing.

[TwilightGardener]

7. Yep--other drivers aren't going to have the same maneuvering

or stopping ability on winter roads when someone's partially obstructing a lane. That's another factor the officer should have considered when pulling someone over.

[Gold Metal Flake]

9. I have driven to safer areas in traffic stops.

I have also been questioned as to why I didn't stop right away. Response: It's safer here. For both of us.

In younger years a friend was pulled over. As he and the cop did their business a drunk creamed my friend's beautiful restored 1970 Mustang Mach 1. So, yeah, I look for a safe place to park my sorry ass and my sorry-assed car.

But these days, after taking shit from assholes who happen to have badges I think the next time I will just park it in the lane I'm in. Let the asshole who happens to have a badge direct me with his PA. I'll probably be shot instead.