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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2020 | BECAUSE COMMUNITY MATTERS | PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK ###
YO U ’ L L B E Delighted
Covington’s Amul Thapar could succeed Ruth Bader Ginsburg Andrew Wolfson Louisville Courier Journal USA TODAY NETWORK
Active pursuit on I-275. PROVIDED/OHIO DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
PURSUIT:
‘One of the most dangerous things police do’ Police pursuits can be deadly, but there isn’t a standard for how they should be carried out
Some departments will begin a pursuit for a simple traffic violation and some still use “pit maneuvers” that involve colliding with a fleeing vehicle to stop it.
Cameron Knight and M adeline Mitchell Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
Raymond and Gayle Laible didn’t act their age. At 80 and 81, they had completed successful careers and were instrumental in revitalizing Mainstrasse Village, but the couple just kept moving. That was until Aug. 7 when an accused weapons traffi cker fl eeing Cincinnati police drove up on a Newport sidewalk, hitting and killing them both. Their deaths put a spotlight on police pursuits and the rules governing them, which can vary by department. Individual police departments are required by Ohio law to have vehicle pursuit policies, but there are no state or federal regulations governing much of what should be in those policies. Ohio only off ers guidelines. Some departments will begin a pursuit for a simple traffi c violation and some still use “pit maneuvers” that involve colliding with a fl eeing vehicle to stop it.
Gayle and Ray Laible in an undated photo. PROVIDED/FOX19
Dangerous work According to a 2016 report from the Ohio Attorney General’s Offi ce, at least 352 people were killed in law enforcement pursuits in the state between 1982 and 2014. Of those, 147, or 41%, were bystanders like the Laibles. That’s more than four innocent people a year. “It’s one of the most dangerous things police do,” Ohio Criminal Justice Services Director Karhlton Moore told The Enquirer. “We really need to be more discriminating in terms of even beginning pursuits.” While the danger of police pursuits may not make as many headlines as shootings, law enforcement and state offi cials have been working for years to develop policies and practices to make chases safer.
In Cincinnati, offi cers are told to consider 13 diff erent factors during pursuits, and a supervisor has to oversee the operation over the radio. But it all comes down to a fundamental question with no concrete answer: when does the risk of a pursuit crash outweigh the risk of allowing a potentially dangerous criminal to get away?
‘I need to see some change’ Jon Farris knows the pain all too well. His son, Paul, was killed in 2007 during a police chase in Massachusetts. Paul was 23. Jon went on to start Pursuit for Change, a Wisconsin-based advocacy group working to bring national attention and reform to police pursuit policy. See PURSUIT, Page 2A
One person being arrested after the fatal crash outside The Press on Monmouth in Newport on Aug. 7, 2020. BOBBY NIGHTENGALE/THE ENQUIRER
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Editor’s note: Portions of this story are drawn from a 2018 Courier Journal profi le. The transplanted Kentuckian who is rumored to be near the top of President Donald Trump’s list to succeed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would be the fi rst Asian-American on the Supreme Court. Amul Thapar (uh-MALL ThuhPAR) grew up in Toledo, Ohio, with his maternal grandfather, who fought with Mahatma Ghandi for India’s independence and impressed on young Amul how Gandhi had defeated an empire without shedding a drop of blood. University of RichThapar mond law professor Carl Tobias, who studies federal judicial selections, said Friday that Thapar will be in the mix because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been a strong proponent and because he is conservative —McConnell recommended him for the district bench and the appellate court. But Tobias said Thapar is not well known by many people and has not had the kind of cases heard at the Supreme Court or the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia — the most common feeder for the high court. Thapar’s father, Raj, has said the family urged Amul to become a doctor, but he had only one dream — to become a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. Now he may realized that dream. Thapar, 51, who sits on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, was one of four fi nalists to replace Anthony Kennedy when he retired in 2018, but Trump instead nominated Brett Kavanaugh. USA TODAY reported in 2018 Thapar has never written about abortion or other hot-button issues, which could make conservatives fearful. But the appellate court judge has railed against “politicians in robes” who substitute their views for the law, and has written that the three branches of governments should “stay in their lanes.” Writing earlier this year in the Michigan Law Review, USA TODAY said, Thapar denounced judges who “bend the law” to meet their own goals and ignore the text of statutes and the Constitution to achieve an “equitable outcome.” If he is nominated and confi rmed to the high court, his rise would be meteoric. Those on the right may question whether he will be reliably conservative or if would be the next David Souter, a Republican appointee who reliably voted with the court’s liberal members for 19 years until he retired in June 2009. But Thapar’s father told The Courier Journal for a 2018 profi le his son is so conservative he “nearly wouldn’t speak to me after I voted for Barack” Obama. And Thapar is a darling of the Federalist Society, the conservative intellectual group that believes the Constitution should be interpreted as it was written. The organization helped asSee THAPAR, Page 6A
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