Redding Police Department vehicle pursuit ends in critical injury of motorcyclist
RPD alleges a motorcyclist fled from a traffic stop, prompting a chase and crash that landed the driver in the hospital. California Penal Code imposes specific guidelines for how police officers should pursue motorcyclists to prevent public safety hazards, injuries and deaths.
Editor’s note: The Shasta County Coroner confirmed the identity of the motorcyclist as 35-year-old Christopher Michael Scott, who died as a result of his injuries. Shasta Scott has requested the body camera footage of the officer involved in this critical incident.
The Redding Police Department shared a news release shortly after midnight, early on the morning of Sept. 10 detailing a high-speed chase that ended with the motorcyclist in critical condition. According to RPD, an officer attempted to pull over a man on a motorcycle for an alleged vehicle code violation at the corner of North Market and Benton Drive. Rather than stop, he sped westbound on Benton Drive, the news release said, and, after a vehicle pursuit, the officer briefly lost sight of him.
It’s not clear from RPD’s initial press release what, if any, immediate danger to the public the RPD officer suspected when they initiated a motorcyclist pursuit.
Shortly after, the motorcyclist crashed into a guardrail, ejecting him from the motorcycle. He was severely injured and transported to Mercy Medical Center for care, according to RPD. The Shasta County Multi-Agency Officer Involved Critical Incident Response Team (OICIRT) is conducting an investigation into the incident as a whole, headed by the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office. The California Highway Patrol is investigating the crash itself.
The OICIRT is a multi-agency team that investigates police incidents in which a person is seriously injured or dies, including but not limited to police shootings or uses of force. It consists of the Redding Police Department, the Anderson Police Department, California Highway Patrol, the Shasta County District Attorney and the local sheriff’s office.
The goal of OICIRT investigations of how law enforcement handled a critical incident, as written in the sheriff department’s policy handbook, is to “determine the existence or nonexistence of a crime; that is, to determine whether the nature and quality of the conduct are of a type prohibited by statutes, the violation of which is punishable by criminal penalties.” In other words, OICIRT investigates whether law enforcement’s actions leading up to and during the critical incident were allowable under the law.
California’s Penal Code requires police departments to provide training on how to engage in vehicle pursuits. California’s Peace Officer Standard and Training (POST), the state curriculum used by RPD, says that officers should use a “balance test” before initiating a pursuit. Motorcyclists are overrepresented in traffic related deaths, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and POST training also instructs officers to acknowledge the type of vehicle when considering a pursuit.
“If the threat to public or officer safety is greater than the need for immediately apprehending the suspect, then the pursuit should not be initiated or it should be terminated,” POST curriculum states.
Redding Police Department’s handbook cites a similar policy about vehicle pursuits, requiring officers to consider “the danger that the continued pursuit poses to the public, the officers, or the suspect, balanced against the risk of allowing the suspect to remain at large.”
RPD’s news release noted that the officer who pursued the motorcyclist was performing his duties with the support of a California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) grant. The Police Traffic Services grant program supports enforcement of traffic violations and impaired driving, including training to conduct DUI/Driver’s License checkpoints. Shasta Scout reached out to RPD to confirm the specifics of this traffic safety grant.
Do you have a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.
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I personally can’t wait to hear what the “vehicle code violation” the cyclist had committed in the first place. Is it the intent of the OTS grant to protect everyone from code violations? So, we are using grant money to pull people over for tinted windows and missing front license plates? Seems like a waste
Please hold the government — including the police — accountable if they do something wrong.
Nobody has presented any evidence of that, but the entire tone of this article assumes wrongdoing by the police.
Apparently it needs to be said, but the law also requires drivers to stop for police sirens. This would have been the easiest possible injury for the driver to avoid if he had followed the law.
Horrible might and I do hope the guy doesn’t have life-altering injuries.
Seriously?: I would say the tone of the article assumes the possibility of wrongdoing by the police. Something that may feel wrong to you because its so rare in local media.
The assumption would be more credible with any facts to back it up.
If it turns out RPD broke the law related to pursuits, I’ll look forward to reading a full report about it, but the premise that the police are at fault when some numbskull hits the gas instead of the brakes when they see sirens in the rearview mirror is incredibly destructive to public safety on the roads.
Seriously: The media should always assume the possibility of wrongdoing by the police. If we don’t assume they could be at fault how could we possibly be objective in reviewing their actions? Similarly we also assume the cyclist could be at fault. We, of course, have no access to their perspective at this point. We only have what the police have released. I have just reread our piece. I challenge you to share anything that demonstrates an assumption that the police ARE at fault. We don’t make that assumption.
“It’s not clear … what, if any, immediate danger to the public the RPD officer suspected when they initiated a motorcyclist pursuit.”
“In other words, OICIRT investigates whether law enforcement’s actions leading up to and during the critical incident were allowable under the law.”
“Motorcyclists are overrepresented in traffic related deaths … and POST training also instructs officers to acknowledge the type of vehicle when considering a pursuit.”
You say you make no assumptions, but you are very thoroughly looking for reasons why the guy booking it from the police and crashing his bike is the police’s fault. And that is the bias I am talking about.
There are bad pursuits that make the world more dangerous rather than safer. The police owe the public good judgment. But if you don’t see how the roads would become 10 times more dangerous if the yahoos out there know they just don’t have to stop for the police, then I don’t know what to tell you.
We disagree on this one, but I appreciate your thoughts and Shasta Scout’s reporting … most of the time.
Seriously: It’s fine to disagree. But accountability reporting is, in fact, “very thoroughly looking” at whether the people in power could be at fault when there’s harm. That’s what we do.
Guy is presumably breaking the law in some way to get pulled over in the first place, books it from the police on a drizzly evening, and a few miles away crashes his bike after demonstrably riding in an exceptionally reckless manner.
With no particular evidence, Shasta Scout trots out all the reason this is the police’s fault.
You guys do a lot of good work and I appreciate it, but you really need someone with a sense of the community to check y’all’s insane progressive priors. It’s getting bad. I say this in love.
California law is explicit on the police’s responsibility when it comes to motorcyclist pursuits. This is not a small thing. The law exists due to known risks. As always, we are providing accountability with this piece. We don’t know if the police’s actions were justified. Neither does anyone else yet. All we did with this story is point to the importance of state law and accountability. This is in fact what law enforcement are acknowledging when they launch an incident team to investigate what occurred.
How’s that boot taste?