COPS FACE NEW WEAPON: THE CAR

PUBLICATION: The Edmonton Sun
DATE: 2004.01.23
EDITION: Final
SECTION: Editorial/Opinion
PAGE: 11
BYLINE: ANDREW HANON, SPECIAL TO THE EDMONTON SUN

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COPS FACE NEW WEAPON: THE CAR

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Forget about handguns, submachine-guns and even knives.

The weapon of choice for Edmonton-area criminals these days is much bigger, much easier to obtain and much more lethal.

It’s the automobile.

Consider the case of Leo Desjarlais and Stony Plain RCMP Const. Sarah Kropp. At 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 2, 2002, Kropp found Desjarlais in his pickup truck parked near Alberta Beach. She checked her computer and discovered he was wanted for violating his parole. Rather than be taken in, Desjarlais drove his truck straight into her police cruiser, not once but three times until he had rammed it into a ditch.

Kropp, who had to pry herself out of the battered car, was convinced Desjarlais wouldn’t stop until he had killed her. She took five shots in a vain effort to stop him. Finally, he fled and was arrested a short while later at his home.

Another case in point: Edmonton police Const. Terry Mitchell and Steven Adam Breton. On Dec. 21, 2003, Breton was stopped at a Christmas CheckStop on Gateway Boulevard, where it was discovered his car had another vehicle’s licence plate. He tried to get away, but Mitchell, who was standing at the car window, instinctively reached in and grabbed Breton’s jacket and seat belt.

Like a scene from a Lethal Weapon movie, Mitchell was dragged four blocks at speeds of up to 70 kmh.

Eventually Mitchell fell, but miraculously avoided serious injury. Breton continued to lead other police on a high-speed chase through the city until he drove over a spike belt at 95 Street and 116 Avenue.

But it’s not just police officers whose lives are at risk. High-speed chases create infinitely more danger to the public than anything Edmonton’s warring street gangs have done. Just ask Bob Walker. The former Whitecourt fire chief was driving home on Dec. 16, 2003, when he was hit from behind and sent careening into the ditch along Highway 43.

The SUV that struck him was being chased by RCMP. Earlier that day, cops had tried to pull over the SUV for a minor traffic violation when the driver sped away (they learned later it had been swiped a day earlier). The driver raced north of Whitecourt for 36 km, then abruptly turned around and ran straight at the police, forcing them off the road. Even a spike belt failed to stop the man. Shortly after hitting Walker, he veered into oncoming traffic, rammed into a semi-trailer truck and was killed.

The semi’s driver wasn’t injured and, after a night in the hospital, Walker was given the green light to go home. But, clearly, he understood the stakes.

“There could have been several people killed,” Walker told reporters at the time.

There’s so much concern over this growing phenomenon that Alberta Justice has assigned a prosecutor to concentrate on these cases in an effort to win stiffer sentences. The Criminal Code was recently amended to include a charge for “criminal flight from police.” It carries sentences of up to five years if no one is injured, 14 years if someone is injured, and life if someone is killed.

In the first 10 months of 2003, Edmonton police laid this charge 153 times.

Now it’s just a matter of convincing judges to use the law.

Edmonton Police Service spokesman Wes Bellmore said recent sentences are encouraging. Breton was handed a five-year sentence last week. In November, another man was sentenced to five years after ramming a city police car.

Desjarlais pleaded guilty this week to dangerous driving causing bodily harm and is expected to be sentenced on Monday. Stay tuned.