Well, I'm going to give her a bye on that; she was grooving on her choice of music, and although it's not to my taste, she wasn't making anybody else listen to it . . . and then, very quickly into the encounter, she turned it off or 'way down.

I don't know, Joel. Music is a proven emotion driver - I think that, and especially on new years eve, focus on what happening on the road - not what some dopy band is singing.

The "illegal lane change" is just a obvious pretext excuse for a DUI check. That happens only in the evening.

It is unsafe to stop on a freeway, that's what is probably the leading reason cops get killed.

The "pit manuver" would do nothing to stop him from fleeing. An uptight cop confused by her training. If he was DUI, as she suspected, she'd have gotten away with it.

I'm amazed that LEO's, by policy, are even allowed to listen to music. Don't they have to be able to listen to radio calls?

I'm thinking "excuse" and "attempting to show the guys she's got a bigger penis than they do" rather than training. Not that it matters much.

Frankly, I'd have expected better from Captain Frandrup's people.

Each time I see this I get madder and madder. I talked to two active LEOs today and both were shocked that she still on the job. Both made comments about the haircut. Both said a pit move will hardly ever work against a slow moving car and both said they were always hesitant to use it on a mini van because there was too much room for kids to fly around inside the vehicle. Both said they believed that militant sexual preference was a probable reason the leadership did not suspend or fire her.


I wrote a snail mail letter to the commandant and CCd it to pawlenty.

Thats funny. I was thinking the hair told a story of its own too!

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I have always been under the impression that the PIT maneuver was restricted to situations where there were multiple police cars on the scene. I also thought you generally called for back up if you thought your target was fleeing and maintained a safe following distance.

Just heard Fox News is going to run the story in a couple minutes on "Kelly's Court"

Policy! who needs policy!?! You don't get a reputation like Nash Bridges if you follow policy. Gotta get those speeding daddys and maybe score that big bust. What if he was a child abducter, a man with three kids in the car and no woman. . . . obviously a pedophile that needed an extreme stop.

Er, to quote Boondock Saints "Television. Television is the explanation for this - you see this in bad television. Little assault guys creeping through the vents, coming in through the ceiling - that James Bond shit never happens in real life! Professionals don't do that!"

I gotta say I was pretty miffed after watching this. It's pretty clear to me that someone who uses their turn signal and slows down, is not fleeing. Jumping out of the minivan probably wasn't smart, but if this bit$h hit my truck, I'd probably do the same.

She needs to be terminated, and charged. It's time that police start to become responsible for their actions. Not just some inside whitewash job. The police state is alive and well I'm afraid.

The one thing I noticed about the video is the time.

The video is chopped a couple times by Kare11, but you can see by the timestamps of the video, that Rindal initially maneuvered in behind Salter at 23:55:20 and activated her lights no earlier than that... he came to a stop at 23:56:57.

That "high-speed" "chase" lasted not longer than 1 minute and 37 seconds..

Each department has their own policies regarding pursuits. Hopefully a licensed police officer - if there are any left on the board - can chime in for a more authoritative answer but it's been my impression from talking to those in public safety that police officers are encouraged to end pursuits as soon as possible. The longer the pursuit, the greater the risk to innocent bystanders, the police officers, and the person not stopping. While extremely dangerous for the officer involved, if he or she can terminate a pursuit with the PIT maneuver before backup arrives, most departments would appear to encourage that course of action. These days, a pursuit lasting more than a couple of minutes would be considered a long chase.

Not that it matters a whole lot, I think the Trooper involved did overreact. Given the distance traveled, I would have understood a high risk stop, or at the very least not approaching the vehicle until plenty of help arrived. As everyone has noted, the driver was certainly not attempting to get away by traveling at a high rate of speed. The poor attempt at the PIT maneuver is frankly embarrassing, but I have to give the caveat I've never attempted one myself, so I can't say I would do any better.

Someone mentioned this guy got arrested for doing what the police tell you to do if you don't feel safe. I have to admit, the only safety scenario regarding traffic stops that I've heard about is primarily directed at women, that if they are unsure the vehicle behind them is a real police car they are to head towards a well lit area with their four-way flashers on while calling 911 from a cell phone (if possible). It's up to the officer to decide if a location is safe for a traffic stop, especially since the officer is placed in the greatest danger by the motoring public during the stop. This guy didn't mention he didn't think the cop was real, only that he didn't like the location. He should have pulled over immediately like we all learned in driving school.

So next time the lights go on behind this guy, he should stop right where he is at, the far left lane of an interstate at night.

There is no excuse for this trooper, none.

Is it possible that everything was good, the trooper had no problem with what the driver was doing? At least not until she rear ended the guy because she wasn't paying attention and on the icy shoulder she was unable to stop? Maybe fast thinking on her part as to not wanting to admit that she just plain rear ended the guy.......