PIT maneuvers rarely end well. They’re aggressive, dangerous, and far too often result in someone’s death. But if you’re a state cop who’s absolutely determined to enter a pursuit and to send a car spinning or flipping off the road, at least do this one little bit of due diligence: Make sure it’s the right car.
An Arkansas State Trooper learned this the hard way this past week, after he slammed the wrong car with a PIT maneuver on I-40. Dashcam footage from KARK shows a white or silver sedan passing the trooper, who then proceeds to fire off down the highway and smash into the first white sedan he sees. Y’know, cop stuff.
In the dashcam footage, a light-colored sedan blows past two cops while they sit on an on-ramp. The car is tough to make out in the grainy footage, but its vertically-oriented tail lights and general D-pillar shape sure look like a Chrysler 300 to me. The cops flip on their lights and give chase, immediately losing the sedan in traffic, but eventually come upon a white Cadillac. The Cadillac seems to see the police lights, and begins to pull over to make room for them to pass, but is instead rammed by the officer whose dashcam recorded the crash.
KARK reports that both occupants of the Cadillac were okay after the crash, and that the Arkansas State Police opened an investigation into the situation. That investigation, however, likely won’t mean much — the cop in question has already put in for retirement.
Not a firing, not disciplinary action, but retirement. With a party, a cake, presumably some sort of gold watch and pension. I’m starting to see why people get into the cop business —- you can go speeding down the highway, careen into whatever car catches your eye, and get a break room party out of it. That’s protecting and serving if ever I’ve seen it.