Palmer Township police, undergoing state accreditation, say decisions like those made in the fatal 2008 wrong-way crash would be different now.
The hair-raising police car chase last weekend that included wrong-way pursuits on Route 22 was initiated in seconds but watched closely, according to Pennsylvania State Police.
In the Lehigh Valley, where a wrong-way police pursuit on the same road in 2008 ended fatally, law enforcement officials say the decision to chase is rarely an easy one. Officers also grapple with decisions over how to stop suspects once police catch up to them.
“Each pursuit is different,” Pennsylvania State Police Capt. William Teper said. “A lot of factors are accounted for in a short period of time."
Last weekend, troopers pursued 26-year-old Daniel R. Ranallo, of Oxford Township, as he fled from police just before midnight March 2 on Route 22.
Ranallo, who was wanted, drove off the highway after police started chasing him. Soon after, he re-entered the highway -- driving east on the westbound shoulder. Police followed.
Ranallo led police to the Lehigh Valley International Airport in Hanover Township, Lehigh County, court papers say.
Police used the precision immobilization technique, where an officer drove alongside Ranallo's car, knocked into the rear of it and spun it 180 degrees to a stop. Ranallo ran away, scaled a 10-foot fence topped with barbed wire and sprinted across an airport runway until he was finally caught, police said.
Careful monitoring
Teper said officers are trained to recognize when a search is worthwhile and when it’s too dangerous to continue.
The time of day, the road and even weather can come into play during such a decision. But even in mid-chase, things can change.
“Every pursuit is evaluated by officers and supervisors,” Teper said. “If we think the risks outweigh the reward, we can terminate the pursuit. In this case, we felt comfortable with it continuing.”
But if someone fled at 3 p.m. on a weekday near a school, he said, police would be less likely to chase.
“With that kind of information, we’re going to shut down a pursuit,” he said.
The maneuver state police used to stop Ranallo is the same one state police Trooper Joshua Miller used June 7, 2009, to stop Daniel Autenrieth, who had kidnapped his son in Nazareth and led police on a chase into the Poconos.Miller spun out Autenrieth's car on Route 611 in Coolbaugh Township in Monroe County, and fellow officers saved the kidnapped boy from the car before Miller and Autenrieth died in a shootout.
Teper said the decision to use the special move, called a PIT maneuver, is not made lightly.
“I don’t want to say it’s rare, but it’s not an everyday occurrence,” Teper said.
Supervisors must give troopers permission to try the maneuver, which could be dangerous if other vehicles or civilians are near.
“It’s a tactic we use and that can be effective. The quicker we can stop a pursuit, the better,” Teper said. “In this case, we got our man.”
New Jersey State Police declined to discuss its pursuit policy.
‘If that situation would occur again … we would not pursue”
At least one wrong-way police chase in the Lehigh Valley is hard to forget.
Kevin W. Messinger, 38, of St. Petersburg, Fla., who was wanted out of Florida for aggravated assault and armed burglary charges, was fleeing from police after stealing a vacuum at from the Palmer Park Mall.
Jolene LaBar, a pregnant newlywed, was on her way home from work.
LaBar, 31, of Washington Township, N.J., was killed Aug. 19, 2008, when Messinger's truck slammed into her car in rush-hour traffic on Route 22 in Palmer Township.
Her husband Daniel LaBar filed a lawsuit against Palmer Township and Wilson Borough in September 2009, alleging that police were negligent when they pursued Messinger on the busy highway. A U.S. District Judge dismissed the case in early 2011.
John Zaiter, attorney for Daniel LaBar, said his client opted not to appeal due in part to recent rulings in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals pertaining to police chases.
Palmer Township police Sgt. Michael Vangelo, who was not with the force at the time of the chase, said the chase has been reviewed thoroughly by the department.
Vangelo said the township department is undergoing the state accreditation process, which will require the implementation of a standard police pursuit policy. Those directives are likely to mirror those of the state police, also an accredited agency.
Vangelo said the decisions made in 2008 to pursue Messinger would likely not have been approved under the new policy.
“We did review that,” Vangelo said. “I can say that if that situation would occur again in Palmer Township, we would not pursue the wrong way on the roadway.”