I put real-life police car chases on TV and I wish I hadn’t
The televised car chase is a Southern California institution and last week viewers were treated to one of the most memorable pursuits of recent years.
It began in Fullerton, Orange County, when a suspect refused to stop for police. Over the next hour he led officers on a dangerous pursuit, twice hijacking other vehicles, ramming multiple cars and smashing into two police cruisers before finally being apprehended 21km away on Hacienda Boulevard in Los Angeles County.
One person who was not watching the spectacle with giddy excitement was Zoey Tur. The journalist and helicopter pilot effectively created the TV genre of the Los Angeles police chase in January 1992, when her coverage of a murderer on the run was broadcast live on local news to blockbuster ratings. From the controls of her Bell Jet Ranger helicopter Tur, 62, provided live commentary as the suspect’s stolen red Volkswagen Cabriolet led the black-and-white cars of the California Highway Patrol on a chase that ended when officers fatally shot the killer.
The next day in a front-page story the Los Angeles Times called it a ‘‘marriage of technology and tragedy’’ but viewers could not get enough, and editors have been clearing the schedules for live pursuits ever since.
Tur, however, regrets the role she played in the genre’s rise, arguing that it ruined local news, pushing it towards sensationalism and distracting viewers from important issues. ‘‘It changed the very nature of news,’’ Tur said. ‘‘It has taken over like a virus, attacking healthy cells. It rewrote the DNA of news and now we’re left with sensational local news stories. All of the important issues, politics, health, crime, everything, an entire broadcast completely thrown out because ‘we interrupt your news broadcast’ for what has become entertainment.’’
Early in her career Tur would follow the Los Angeles Police Department on pursuits in her car, shooting footage of the officers dealing out ‘‘street justice’’ to suspects who attempted to flee. Often, however, she would be thwarted by the city’s gridlocked traffic and miss the best of the action.
Her solution, in 1982, was to buy a helicopter. Using the money she had saved from working the Los Angeles crime beat, Tur paid police officers and firefighters to teach her how to fly.
Tur, who is transgender, worked with her ex-wife Marika Gerrard, who often served as the camerawoman in the helicopter, and they pioneered a novel way of covering the news.
It was an all-consuming job that left Tur battling posttraumatic stress disorder and burnout. She used to sleep with the police scanner on, scared to miss a big story.
As well as the first live car chase, Tur also covered the beating of Reginald Denny, the truck driver who was beaten and left for dead during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
But it is another case for which Tur is best-known. Every police officer in Los Angeles was looking for OJ Simpson in June 1994 after the former American football player absconded following the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson.
Tur had a hunch that Simpson would visit his former spouse’s grave and flew south towards Orange County. What followed remains the most famous car chase in not only Los Angeles but American history.
Tur left her TV news job in 2000, jaded by the sensationalism. She watched last week’s chase and was saddened by what she saw. She said: ‘‘We watch these things like it’s entertainment, and it’s not.’’ – Sunday Times