Missouri Bicycle News

Friends of Toni Sena, the bicyclist who was killed by a man trying to escape police in a high-speed chase, met with the KCMO police board Tuesday. KCMO actually adopted a more restrictive pursuit policy in November 2002. This policy has resulted in less chases than before. The board is planning to consider the pursuit policy further.

Some communities have gone as far as to adopt no-pursuit policies, finding that, on balance, the public safety is best served by such a policy. High-speed chases put the lives of police officers and innocent bystanders at significant risk.

Here is more information from Laurie Chipman, one of the organizers of the campaign:

Here is the result of our meeting with the KCMO police board.

After Carol sent a press release there was lots of interest by the media. Fox 4 news taped interviews and parts of our meeting on Monday evening. We met on Monday to prepare for our meeting on Tuesday.

Several people came to support us yesterday. One man read the editorial in yesterday's paper and wanted to tell his story. We were well prepared with facts and statistics. There was a sign on an easel and a "white paper" of facts that was left with the board. The board was unaware of some of the issues and facts regarding police pursuit and how dangerous and pointless it can be. If anyone wants to know some of these issues ask us or go to pursuitwatch.org for more information.

We can still use more signatures if anyone wants to sign the petition (PDF format).

This chase started in Leawood and crossed to Prairie Village too. It would be great (a dream) to get all the metro area cities to have similar policies and cooperate more with each other, to share information, and see this as the metro area issue that it is.

More info:

• Mike Hendricks column in the KCStar
  
  
• Story in the Star.
  
  
• KCTV5 coverage
  
  
• KansasCityChannel coverage
  
  
• MoBikeFed's previous news story about the petition
  
  
• Petition (PDF format, can be downloaded, signed, and returned following instructions on the sheet)

permanent link to article: "KCMO police pursuit policy examined"
posted by Brent Hugh at 9/24/2003 01:01:05 PM |comment on this article