Cops get wrist-slap for fatal chase

On the night of Dec. 2, 2017, a woman called Coconut Creek police to complain about noise outside a local apartment complex. A police officer who arrived spotted two young people inside a 2002 Buick LaSabre, the engine running. The smell of marijuana wafted in the air.

Minutes later, the then 19-year-old driver, Fabreece Ductan, hit the gas. Four officers took part in the ensuing chase, hitting speeds of 100 mph. Without alerting a supervisor, as policy and training would have dictated, they pursued the young couple for a heart-stopping 77 seconds. The chase ended abruptly when Ductan crashed into a car in nearby Margate. He survived. But his 18-year-old passenger, Abigail Espinoza, died.

Ductan bears the lion’s share of blame for Espinoza’s death, without doubt. He was wrong to dash away, likely worried about the two pounds of pot and bottle of booze later found in the car. He pleaded guilty last month to vehicular homicide and related offenses. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Meanwhile, the four police officers whose actions contributed to the young woman’s death received a slap on the wrist. Officers Rocco Favata, Chris Lewis and David Morales were suspended for five days without pay. The fourth officer, Cristian Salas, received a reprimand because it was his first-time offense.

The thing is, these officers knew better, or should have known better. As Sun Sentinel reporter Lisa Huriash reported, Favata, Lewis and Morales had gotten in trouble a year earlier for the same violation.

In 2016, the three were reprimanded for failing to get permission to pursue a fleeing suspect by car. And months before the crash that killed Espinoza, Morales received a one-day suspension Abigail Espinoza without pay for pursuing a suspect over a minor complaint about property damage.

What happened to three strikes and you’re out? How many times must a police officer be told not to chase someone without getting permission? If an officer can’t, or won’t, follow orders, he should be let go.

Sure, it must be infuriating for a police officer to have someone flout his authority and speed off. But today’s policing tools offer a host of other ways to catch bad guys. Besides, people expect those responsible for public safety to demonstrate self-discipline and some restraint.

Had the officers reported the chase, a supervisor said he would have called it off immediately. “These are experienced officers and any one of them had time (77 seconds) to say something,” said the report of a department investigator who reviewed the incident.

There’s good reason to rein in police chases. They’re deadly for people nearby. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in a study tracking two decades of data, found more than 7,000 people were killed in crashes involving “police vehicle pursuits.” The vast majority — nine in 10 — involved a chase with a non-violent offender.

Bystanders and passengers accounted for nearly half of all people killed in police-suspect chases between 1979 and 2013, USA TODAY reported. It found police chases killed nearly as many people as justifiable police shootings.

“It’s police playing cowboy,” says Jonathan Farris, of Pursuit for Change, a Wisconsin-based advocacy group. He speaks from his own painful experience. His 23-year-old son was killed in 2007 when a Massachusetts state trooper went on a high-speed chase of a motorist who had made an illegal U-turn.

Ductan was no saint. He had had previous drug arrests. But had the officers taken the time to check, they would have found he had no background of violence. And if they were determined to nab someone smoking pot, they could easily have scribbled down the car’s license plate and learned it was owned by the young man’s father, who lived nearby.

“These are good officers,” Coconut Police Chief Albert “Butch” Arenal told our reporter. “They are hard-working and there were some mistakes made, none of which led to the death of this girl.”

Arenal is wrong to suggest his officers’ high-risk, hot-dogged pursuit played no role in Espinoza’s death.

And Hyram Montero, an attorney representing her family, is right to say the suspensions are “neither a sufficient or appropriate sanction.”

Salas’ reprimand is understandable, given that it was his first offense. But given their records, the other three knew — or should have known — they were doing something wrong.

By making excuses for officers who flout the rules, Arenal failed this community.

The next time a Coconut Creek officer engages in a high-speed chase — and there’s every reason to believe it will happen again — this community will hold the chief accountable.

There’s good reason to rein in police chases. More than 7,000 people were killed in crashes involving “police vehicle pursuits.” The vast majority — nine in 10 — involved a chase with a non-violent offender.

BROWARD SCHOOLS