by Gary Craig
Staff writer

Published: October 23, 2008

Twice this month, area police engaged in frenzied high-speed chases reaching upwards of 80 miles per hour.

The chases — one of two shoplifting suspects, the other of a burglary suspect — ended with arrests, and police say they
hewed to their policies for high-speed pursuits. Those policies, they say, are cautious.

But these chases come at a time when, nationwide, police departments are revisiting their pursuit policies to be sure the
risks to the public are few. Some localities have chosen to engage only in chases for violent crimes, said Geoffrey Alpert,
a criminal justice professor at the University of South Carolina, who has researched pursuit policies since the 1980s.

"There's always been the balance: the need to immediately apprehend versus the risk with the chase," he said.
In neither case this month was the person under pursuit suspected of a violent crime — but authorities maintain that the chases and subsequent arrests were justifiable. A Greece Police chase Tuesday night ended when the woman driving the car under pursuit crashed into two other cars. The drivers of those cars, whose names were not released by police, suffered minor injuries, police said.

Arrested were Denise Thompson, 48, of 434 Central Park in Rochester, and Manzel R. Maxwell, 17, of 117 Kittleberger
Park in Webster. The two are suspected of taking almost $500 worth of goods from the Macy's department store at The
Mall at Greece Ridge.

Speeds reached 80 miles per hour in the chase along Ridge Road and Route 104, police said. About 9:45 p.m.,
Thompson's car left 104 at Carter Street in Rochester, ran a red light off the exit ramp, striking a taxi cab and a third
vehicle, said Lt. Patrick Phelan of the Greece Police Department.

"This lady is a rolling crime-wave," Greece Police Chief Merritt Rahn said of Thompson. He said her record shows 39
past arrests, including two felonies, and 16 pending criminal charges. Police found suspected stolen goods from other
stores in the rental car she was driving, Rahn said.

In the other chase this month, police arrested Jessie James Barnes, 42, of Upper Falls Boulevard, Rochester, after he
led police on a 15-minute pursuit through East Rochester, Brighton and Henrietta. He crashed into four police cars and
another vehicle, before fleeing from his car and leaping into the Erie Canal.

Barnes, who served 71⁄2 years in state prison for a burglary conviction, is suspected of a string of burglaries across the
county. Police momentarily suspended the chase when Barnes started driving the wrong way on I-590, but then resumed when he crossed over the median then exited the highway again.

"We're not going to chase some guy going the wrong way," said Brighton Police Chief Thomas Voelkl.

Myths about flight
Last year, the Greece police pursuit policy came under scrutiny after police chased Pamela Chatman, 44, after she was
spotted running to her car in the parking lot of The Mall at Greece Ridge. Chatman lost control of her car, crashed near
Glenora Drive and was thrown from the vehicle. The Rochester resident died from injuries. Police said they found about
$1,200 worth of stolen goods in the car. The pursuit was between 40 and 45 miles per hour, police said.

Police determined the chase was warranted, Rahn said. As with this week's case, a supervisor monitored the chase,
staying in contact with the officers. Supervisors determine whether a chase is too risky to continue, Rahn said.

Recently, Rahn said, he disciplined a Greece police official who allowed a chase for a traffic violation.

Oftentimes, Rahn said, the people who choose to flee from police are career criminals. But Alpert, the co-author of the
book "Police Pursuits: What We Know," said it's a common myth that the worst of the criminals are the ones who run.
Many times joy-riding teenagers or low-level criminals are the ones fleeing, he said.

A second myth, he said, is the police belief that "if we don't chase, everybody's going to run."

Nationwide, data is available about police chase fatalities through the federal Fatal Analysis Reporting System. In 2007, according to FARS data, 424 people died from injuries suffered in police pursuits — 296 people in the cars being pursued, 98 people in other cars, nine officers, and 21 "nonoccupants," who are typically pedestrians.

That number is the most in the past 25 years. Only one other time during that period, in 2006, did the fatalities eclipse
400. There were 406 that year, according to FARS, which experts say typically is a low number because reporting is not
reliable.

Risk to bystanders
Candy Priano, executive director of the nonprofit Voices Insisting on PursuitSAFETY, knows about the limitations of
FARS fatality reporting. Her organization pushes for tougher police policies for pursuits and, she said, she knows of four more innocent bystanders killed in California chases in 2007 than are included in the numbers for that state.

"We're averaging two to three deaths a week (nationally) of innocent bystanders," said Priano, who lives in Chico, Calif. In 2002, her 15-year-old daughter died from injuries suffered when a car being chased by police slammed into Priano's car.

Locally, none of the recent chases resulted in serious injuries or deaths of bystanders. In Tuesday's chase, Thompson did speed through a red light before crashing into other vehicles.

Thompson apparently thought she knew the Greece policy on chases, Rahn said.

"She said to me (after arrested), 'You guys can't chase for misdemeanors. I'm going to sue you.' ''

Thompson was wrong in her belief. Now she and Maxwell face a bevy of charges: third-degree-assault, unlawfully fleeing police, reckless driving, resisting arrest, fourth-degree criminal mischief and petit larceny.

Police acknowledge the danger of chases, and say they work to find the balance.

"There is a risk associated with it," Voelkl said. "Nobody's going to dispute that."

GCRAIG@DemocratandChronicle.com
Includes reporting by staff writer Victoria Freile.