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AR Cop Sued for Flipping Pregnant Woman’s SUV B/C She Didn’t Pull Over Fast Enough

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  • Mountain Man
    replied
    In my experience (yes, I do have some some experience getting pulled over by the police ), officers are usually happy to wait until there is a nice wide shoulder or a parking lot to pull into so their backside isn't getting clipped by passing cars, but 2-minutes does strike me as an excessively long time. Of course that in no way justifies the officer's response, nor his false statement that you're obligated to pull over immediately no matter what. It's just one of those curious details that seem inexplicable to me.

    Leave a comment:


  • Sparko
    replied
    video of the incident here:



    The cop needs to lose his job. A pit maneuver should only be used on dangerous criminals, not a traffic stop for speeding.

    Leave a comment:


  • rogue06
    replied
    Slowing down and turning on your emergency flashers is pretty much the universal signal for letting a cop know that you see them and will pull over where it is safe to do so. At least it is around here.

    Leave a comment:


  • AR Cop Sued for Flipping Pregnant Woman’s SUV B/C She Didn’t Pull Over Fast Enough

    And this guy is still a cop. At the very least he should be charged with reckless endangerment of some sort.

    He turned on his lights because she was allegedly speeding. She responded by slowing down and putting on her flashers to indicate she will pull over when it is safe to do so (there was a reduced shoulder with concrete barriers set up on the side). Within two minutes, the cop decided in his infinite wisdom to do a PIT Maneuver, despite her following established procedures and law, which ended with her SUV getting flipped.

    https://www.complex.com/life/arkansa...ant-womans-car
    An Arkansas woman is suing state police after a trooper flipped over her vehicle during an attempted traffic stop while she was pregnant.

    According to Fox16, the incident occurred in July 2020, while Nicole Harper was driving home on I-67/167 outside Jacksonville. The woman was reportedly traveling 84 mph in a 70 mph zone, prompting Sr. Cpl. Rodney Dunn to flash his lights and try to pull Harper over. The lawsuit states the woman had turned on her hazards, slowed down, and began searching for a safe place to park; however, just two minutes after Dunn began pursuing Harper’s SUV, he allegedly used a controversial maneuver that caused the vehicle to hit the concrete median and flip over.

    The maneuver is referred to as the Precision Immobilization Technique, which is when an officer deliberately hits a fleeing vehicle, causing it to spin out. Fox16 reports Arkansas authorities used, or attempted to use, PITs on at least 144 drivers in 2020. The controversial move also resulted in at least three deaths last year.

    Dash camera video taken from Dunn’s patrol car showed him hitting the SUV from the rear before it crashed and flipped over. The mic on his body cam captured him speaking to Harper following the collision. The trooper asked the woman why she didn’t immediately stop, to which she replied: “Because I didn’t feel it was safe … I thought it would be safe to wait until the exit.”

    “No, ma’am. You pull over when law enforcement stops you,” Dunn told Harper, before insisting he didn’t anticipate for her car to flip over.

    According to Fox16, Harper is suing Dunn and the Arkansas State Police for negligence and excessive use of force. Her attorney, Andrew Norwood, said Harper’s ultimate goal is to ensure this type of technique is never used on a civilian ever again.

    “There was a less dangerous and more safe avenue that could have been taken before flipping her vehicle and making it bounce off a concrete barrier going 60 miles an hour,” Norwood said.

    The Attorney General’s Office declined to comment on the complaint or the use of PITs, but the State Police Department released the following statement from Col. Bill Bryant:
    Over the past five years Arkansas State Troopers have documented a 52 percent increase in incidents of drivers making a conscious choice to ignore traffic stops initiated by the troopers. Instead of stopping, the drivers try to flee. In more populated areas of the state, the incidents of fleeing from troopers have risen by more than 80 percent. The fleeing drivers pull away at a high rate of speed, wildly driving, dangerously passing other vehicles, showing no regard for the safety of other motorists, creating an imminent threat to the public.

    The Arkansas State Police began using the Precision Immobilization Technique (PIT) over two decades ago. Trooper recruits while attending the department’s academy receive comprehensive initial training in the use of PIT. All incumbent troopers receive recurring annual training in emergency vehicle operations which includes PIT instruction.

    There’s a fundamental state law none of us should ever forget. All drivers are required under Arkansas law to safely pull-off the roadway and stop when a police officer activates the patrol vehicle emergency lights and siren. The language of the law is crystal clear. Upon the immediate approach of an authorized emergency vehicle displaying the signal to stop, the driver must pull-over and stop. *(see Arkansas statutes ACA §27-51-901 & §27-49-107)

    Should a driver make the decision to ignore the law and flee from police, state troopers are trained to consider their options. Based on the totality of circumstances a state trooper could deploy spike strips to deflate the tires of the vehicle being pursued, execute a boxing technique to contain the pursuit slowing the driver to a stop, execute a PIT maneuver or terminate the pursuit. Most Arkansas State Police pursuits end without a PIT maneuver being utilized.

    PIT has proven to be an effective tool to stop drivers who are placing others in harm’s way. It has saved lives among those who choose to obey the law against those who choose to run from police. In every case a state trooper has used a PIT maneuver, the fleeing driver could have chosen to end the pursuit by doing what all law-abiding citizens do every day when a police officer turns-on the blue lights – they pull over and stop.
    The state police issued a statement trying to cover for their officer, claiming the person is immediately required to pull over (they conveniently gloss over the 'safely' part) yet Arkansas' own driver's license study guide directs drivers to put on their hazards and slow down until they have reached an area that is safe to pull over, which is exactly what she did, down to a t.

    https://www.newsweek.com/dash-cam-vi...neuver-1599210
    A dashcam video from a state trooper's police car in Arkansas showed the trooper nudging another car as he tried to make the driver pull over, resulting in the car flipping on the interstate.

    The video is reportedly from July 2020 and Fox16 reported Nicole Harper, who was a little over two months pregnant at the time, was the victim of the wreck. Senior Cpl. Rodney Dunn reported that Harper was speeding outside of Jacksonville, so he turned on his lights to pull her over.

    In the video, Harper reduced her speed and turned her flashers on, as she claimed the shoulder on the interstate was too narrow and she could not pull over safely.

    Newsweek reached out to Harper's lawyer, Andrew Norwood, who forwarded a copy of the Arkansas Driver's Manual, used to teach new drivers the rules of the road.

    On page three, it lists things to do when you are stopped by an officer, and number one on the list is "Activate your turn signal or emergency flashers to indicate to the officer that you are seeking a safe place to stop." Norwood pointed out what Harper did in her situation was verbatim.

    Still, according to the official complaint and jury demand, two minutes and seven seconds after turning on his lights, Officer Dunn proceeded to perform a Precision Immobilization Technique (PIT) maneuver, as he pulled up to the side of her vehicle and nudged the left side, causing Harper's car to veer across the interstate and hit the concrete median and flip.

    "What was done on Miss Harper was unequivocally deadly," Norwood told Newsweek. He also told Fox16, "There was a less dangerous and more safe avenue that could have been taken before flipping her vehicle and making it bounce off a concrete barrier going 60 miles an hour."

    Dunn's body mic caught a conversation between the two after the crash. He asked her, "why didn't you stop?"

    "Because I didn't feel it was safe," she responded. Dunn said, "Well, this is where you ended up."

    Harper, according to Norwood, was charged for fleeing. She filed a lawsuit in May against the Arkansas State Police for using negligent and excessive force.

    Dunn, according to the body mic, can be heard saying: "no we don't anticipate vehicles rolling over nor do we want that to happen. All you had to do was slow down and stop."

    "I did slow down, I turned on my hazards, I thought I was doing the right thing," she responded.

    State Police Director Col. Bill Bryant sent Fox16 a statement indicating that over the last five years, they have seen over 50 percent of an increase in drivers refusing to stop when being pulled over, which results in the use of PIT maneuvers, like the one used on Harper.

    "In every case a state trooper has used a PIT maneuver, the fleeing driver could have chosen to end the pursuit by doing what all law-abiding citizens do every day when a police officer turns on the blue lights—they pull over and stop," read the statement.

    Harper and her lawyer, Norwood, are hoping the lawsuit will effectively change some policies and create boundaries around when it is appropriate to use PIT maneuvers.

    Harper expressed to Fox16 her fear during the incident, as she thought she was going to lose her baby. "What if I had kids in the car?" she asked. "He wouldn't have known. Did that matter? What was going through his head? What made him think this was okay?"

    Norwood told Newsweek, "I'm upset that I have to represent Miss Harper in this case. But I'm doing it so that I don't have to represent someone else for the same reason a year from now."
    Nearly killed for doing what the state explicitly instructs people to do when they are studying to obtain their drivers licenses. For trying to get to an exit instead of stop on a narrow shoulder late at night.

    BTW, here's what happened in the same state less than a week ago, which is the exact sort of reason a cop should WANT a driver to put on their flashers and get into a safe area:
    E3eSKNrWEAIV5vk.jpg

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