High-speed decisions

Santa Barbara County Sheriff's officials have not completed their internal investigation into a vehicle pursuit that killed a young Santa Maria man seven weeks ago, but so far the chase appears to have been within department policy, a spokesman said.

Brandon Harper, 26, died Jan. 20 at the corner of Broadway and Betteravia Road when his truck was struck by another truck that was being chased by sheriff's deputies.

A sheriff's official said his department's internal investigation will be completed once it reviews a report from the Santa Maria Police Department - which investigated the events leading up to and including the collision because the fatal crash happened within the city.

Last week, the report was forwarded to the District Attorney's office, said Sgt. Rico Flores, head of the SMPD traffic unit.

The report took this long to conclude, he said, because it involved three vehicles spread over a large surface area, fatal injuries and a county agency, among other factors.

However, fatal collision reports typically take up to six weeks to conclude, he said.

“We have begun our investigation but we can't make a final determination until all the information is evaluated,” Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Erik Raney said.

High profile

Few police chases end with fatalities, but when someone dies, it is often an innocent bystander, according to statewide statistics.

That makes high-speed pursuits controversial, forcing police officers to make tough choices between catching crimi

nals and endangering the public. A bill now working its way through the California Legislature would restrict such chases. It's called “Kristie's Law,” after a young woman who was killed in 2005 by a pursuit in Chico.

Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies rely on training, departmental policies and current state law when deciding when to pursue a suspect. Following those guidelines can make the difference between a successful

arrest and a deadly accident, officials say.

A review of vehicle pursuit policies of five agencies - the Santa Maria and Guadalupe police departments, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara county sheriff's departments, and the California Highway Patrol - shows that all agencies must report whether each pursuit “appears to comply” with their policies.

Police officers and sheriff's deputies must train in pursuits through the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) program before they can start patrolling.

Of the five agencies, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's policy is the only one that requires “regular and periodic pursuit training” Š “no less than annually.”

However, none of the policies lay out the potential consequences the officer, or the agency, might face if the pursuit does not comply with its policy.

“The law specifically insulates law-enforcement agencies from third-party liability - as long as the agency has a policy that covers mandated areas,” said Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown.

Instead, discipline is determined case-by-case, based on a deputy's history and the nature of the offense, he said.

“Direct liability would still apply if the officer is very reckless,” said Brown, who added that all of the agency's 12 pursuits in 2006 were within policy guidelines.

The sheriff's department has declined to release any details about the Harper case, which it considers to be just barely an official pursuit, said Raney.

Fatal numbers

California leads the country in the number of vehicle fatalities, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatality Analysis Reporting System.

In 2005, there were nearly 8,000 pursuits in California, according to the California Highway Patrol, which gathers reports from all law-enforcement agencies in the state.

Santa Barbara County had 90 vehicle pursuits and San Luis Obispo County had 52 in 2005, according to CHP statistics.

In 2005, 26 of the 90 pursuits in Santa Barbara County resulted in collisions, the statistics say.

Only one was fatal that year - killing the suspect driver - but 14 pursuits that ended in collisions caused injuries to 12 uninvolved third parties and one officer.

This year, Brandon Harper, a local construction worker and avid Raiders fan, became one of those statistics.

About 10:40 p.m. on Jan. 20, three sheriff's deputies at the corner of Bradley Road and Santa Maria Way heard screeching tires, Sgt. Flores said.

Deputies Paul Lie and Geoffrey Roberts, who were in one patrol car, and deputy Mike McNeil in a second car, then saw a brown 1999 Chevy Silverado truck speeding east on Santa Maria Way toward the Highway 101 on-ramp.

Flores said the deputies did not actually engage in a pursuit - as defined when the patrol car turns on its flashing lights - but instead followed the vehicle north on 101.

The driver, Miguel Garibay, 21, of Santa Maria, would later be charged with four felony counts, including gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated; driving under the influence of alcohol, causing injury; driving with a .08 percent blood-alcohol level, causing injury; and evading an officer, causing injury.

Garibay pleaded not guilty in court Jan. 29. He is due in court again Monday for a preliminary hearing setting.

Garibay reportedly ran a red light when he got off the freeway at Betteravia Road, Flores said.

“That's when they activated their lights and stopped him,” he added.

One of the two deputies reportedly got out but as he approached the truck on foot, Garibay sped off west on Betteravia - going through red lights at nearly 100 mph, witnesses told police.

“The backing deputy goes after him, and that's when you have lights and sirens on the car,” Flores said. “Now you got a vehicle going at a high rate of speed; a vehicle that ran a stop light and is failing to yield to officers.”

Flores said the pursuing deputy lost sight of the fleeing truck half way into the pursuit, near Miller Street on Betteravia Road.

Raney, the sheriff's spokesman, said this case was hardly a pursuit because it happened in a matter of seconds and the deputies trailed so far behind the suspect.

“And he crashed almost immediately after entering the Santa Maria city limit,” he said. “There wasn't even an opportunity to call the Santa Maria Police Department to let them know that there was a pursuit in their area.”

At the intersection of Broadway, about a mile west of where the pursuit began on Betteravia, Garibay's truck slammed into the driver's side of Harper's green 1996 Chevy Silverado pickup.

The impact left Harper's southbound truck on its roof near the southwest corner, Flores said. Garibay continued west and hit the center median before crossing into oncoming traffic.

Garibay's truck then collided head-on with a brown 2003 Nissan Altima driven by Sandra Gonzales of Guadalupe. She suffered minor injuries.

Harper, who was alone in his truck, died at the scene.

A balancing act

According to the policies provided by the five agencies, the primary purpose of a policy is to provide officers and deputies guidance in balancing the safety of the public and themselves against their duty to arrest law-breakers.

But officials say pursuits vary from case to case.

There are no “hard and fast rules” in a pursuit, Raney said.

“There's a whole list of things that the deputies and supervisors need to evaluate before engaging in a pursuit,” he said.

According to the policies, four out of the five agencies consider these key factors before starting a pursuit:

Seriousness of the suspected crime in relation to the level of risk

Apparent nature of the fleeing suspect

Identity of the suspect and whether he or she can be arrested later

Safety of the public considering factors associated with time of day and location, such as within city limits

Weather and road conditions

Performance abilities

Availability of other resources

Quality of communication and familiarity with the area

The CHP's pursuit policy states “a pursuit should only be initiated to apprehend a violator who refuses to voluntarily comply with the law requiring him/her to stop.”

“It's kind of a two-edged sword,” said Santa Maria Police Chief Danny Macagni, expressing some frustration when the public questions an agency's methods of doing its duty - apprehending suspects.

“Police are supposed to take these criminals off the streets,” he said. “We have a complex job, and this is one aspect we take very seriously.”

The SMPD engaged in 25 vehicle pursuits in 2006 and all of those, he said, were within policy.

San Luis Obispo County Undersheriff Steve Bolts said policies are mandated by the state to protect an agency from lawsuits.

It acts as a form of “immunization” when an innocent bystander is injured or killed as a result of a pursuit, he said.

Current law provides innocent victims of vehicle pursuits with monetary compensation to cover hospital or burial expenses.

But advocates of stricter laws against agencies say that's not enough.

“It's not about suing the officers at all,” said Candy Priano, advocate for “Kristie's Law,” named after her daughter.

“It's about restricting pursuits only when ‘eminent peril' is present,” she said of the bill, also known as Senate Bill 718.

Harper's mother, Catherine Harper, declined to comment on pursuit policies and whether pursuits should be limited.

But as a mother who lost her only child, she says she's “anxiously waiting and trusting that the police and sheriff and the district attorney have a real thorough answer at the end.”

For now, she says, legislation cannot bring her child back to life.

But the law, if passed, would take the focus off criminals, said Brown, a former president of the California Police Chiefs Association.

“The officers are trying to apprehend people who are violating the law,” he said. “And anything that shifts focus off the responsibility of the violator and puts the burden on the taxpayer is something that I don't feel is right.”

Luis Ernesto Gomez can be reached at 739-2218, or lgomez@santamariatimes.com.

March 11, 2007