Crazy Law Allows Car Thief To Escape From The Police

RX

Make: Lexus
Segment: SUV

On August 31 2021, a woman in Auburn called 911 to report her Lexus RX as stolen. Unfortunately, the car wasn't nabbed under cover of night but forcibly removed from her possession at gunpoint. The RX was equipped with a tracking device, which pinged one day later on September 1. The local police chopper, called Guardian One, just happened to be in the area on an unrelated call and tracked the Lexus down to an apartment complex.

Here's where the situation gets a bit tricky. Guardian One noticed a male passenger leaving the vehicle from the rear seat and another from the front passenger side. Neither passenger could be identified. As patrol units arrived at the location, the RX drove out of the apartment parking lot. It drove right by one of the first responders.

Guardian One and the ground patrol continued to follow the stolen vehicle but eventually fell behind after running short on fuel. In short, the driver of the Lexus got away. Dodge's new pursuit vehicles probably aren't available in Auburn yet.

Press Release/Stolen Vehicle
*****Press Release/Stolen Vehicle***** 08-31 Around 2:30pm Officers with Auburn PD were dispatched to a stolen vehicle report near the Auburn Police Substation on Lea Hill. The victim at the scene told the officers she had been robbed at gunpoint and her vehicle, a white 2016 Lexus RX, had been stolen. Using a photographic montage, the victim was able to identify the suspect. Officers learned, the vehicle was equipped with Lojack and it had been activated. Just after 3pm, while searching for a suspect on an unrelated call, King County Guardian One reported that they had been receiving pings from the stolen Lexus. Guardian One followed the Lojack signal and at about 3:15pm located the vehicle backing into an apartment complex in the 900 Block of 12 ST SE. Not long after, Guardian One saw a male had left from the backseat and another male had left from the front passenger seat. Neither of these males were able to be identified. The male from the back seat walked across the parking lot, while the male from the front passenger seat got into another vehicle. As patrol units began to converge on the area, Guardian One said a patrol unit had just driven by the Lexus as it pulled out of the apartment complex parking lot. The Lexus had come close to one of our patrol vehicles and drove around our officers. Officers and Guardian One continued to try and track the stolen vehicle, but they eventually fell too far behind and could not keep up. Without anyone observing the driver, identifying the driver or any other possible occupants in the vehicle, there was no probable cause for anyone in the vehicle regarding this robbery case. Due to the recent legislative changes regarding vehicle pursuits and use of force in Washington State, we were not legally allowed to pursue the vehicle.
Posted by Auburn WA Police Department on Thursday, September 2, 2021

How is this possible? Well, it concerns the inability to identify the driver, probable cause, and state police reform laws. Basically, the police could not pursue or engage because there was no probable cause. Since a day had passed, it could have been anyone in the car. The new laws prohibit pursuits unless the police have reason to believe (probable cause) that the person in the car has committed a violent crime or sex offense.

The State Representative, Jesse Johnson, who was part of the team behind the reform laws, stated that the Auburn police "probably" used the right course of action. To us, this seems nearly as shambolic as that time the Fremont police's Tesla ran out of electricity during a pursuit.

This may seem like a silly law, but there is some sound logic behind it. The Bureau of Justice Statistics found that 102 people were killed in police pursuits between 1996 and 2015. These figures are for Washington state only.

Then there's the actual context of the low-speed pursuit in this particular case. It was around 3.30 pm, and there were many pedestrians in the area, and traffic was starting to back up. According to Johnson, there were too many lives at risk for a high-speed chase.

This makes some sense, but it seems the police are still not quite sure what they are and aren't allowed to do. Johnson mentions another incident where a driver was on the wrong side of the road in a stolen vehicle. The police on the scene decided they did not have probable cause according to the new reform laws. Other officers commented after the fact, saying that driving on the wrong side of the road is suspicious enough to stop a car for a possible DUI.

The vehicle was eventually recovered on September 4, and nobody was harmed. Other times the crims end up catching themselves by doing donuts and running out of fuel, as a Dodge Challenger driver found out recently.

In the interest of fairness, we felt it relevant to refer to a recent police chase in Florida, showing how badly things can go wrong in peak hour traffic.