Protect and Swerve: Southern Colorado’s use of the PIT maneuver
It’s a technique that’s been around for years, and Colorado Springs Police officers showed its effectiveness on Sunday — the PIT maneuver is used by law enforcement to stop fleeing suspects.
An attempted murder suspect running from CSPD officers on Powers Blvd. learned how it can work firsthand, and a video captured by a KRDO viewer was seen hundreds of thousands of times.
It’s not like you see in the movies, where a chase is stopped with a crash and the bad guy gets away. The PIT, or pursuit intervention technique, is a tool used by law enforcement agencies across the country for years.
“We have tasers, we have [batons], we have pepper spray, we have the PIT maneuver,” said Detective Gerald LeRay with the Pueblo Police Department.
LeRay is a driving instructor PPD, and he teaches the technique to recruits.
“It’s for the safety of the community,” LeRay said.
It’s a controlled crash to stop a pursuit before it gets out of hand. But Pueblo police have a specific set of rules to perform the PIT in the first place.
“The officer is the one behind the wheel of that patrol car. The liability rests on the officer, his or herself, as to whether or not it’s going to be successful,” LeRay said.
KRDO NewsChannel 13’s Colleen Sikora was given the opportunity to try out the PIT maneuver as someone running from police.
The car spun out in seconds and came to a stop, but it doesn’t always happen that way.
In fact, the Pueblo Police Department doesn’t use the PIT that often.
Here are some statistics dating back to 2015:
2014: 4 (3 completed, 1 attempted) 2015: 4 (2 completed, 2 attempted) 2016: 2 (both completed) 2017: 2 (1 completed, 1 attempted)
With data currently available, Pueblo Police only attempted a PIT maneuver once in 2018.
Pueblo Police say it’s not used often because pursuits aren’t initiated often, mostly because of liability. But when the criteria are met, permission is then granted from the sergeant.
“The pit maneuver is successful,” LeRay said.
If it’s only used a handful of times a year and with tight guidelines, why have it as a tool at all? And why would another department want to add it?
“It just wasn’t in our policy,” said Cmdr. Greg Couch with the Teller County Sheriff’s Office.
Couch said they’re considering adding the maneuver, as they’ve run into situations lately where it’s possible it could have been used.
“One of the recent situations we had: we had a violent, fleeing, felon who had warrants that refused to stop, and was driving extremely recklessly in an area of our county that could have caused somebody to be killed. Potentially that could have been used in that case,” Couch said.
But Couch said it wouldn’t be every situation.
It would need to meet certain guidelines that their deputies would be trained to know when and when not to use it while behind the wheel.
“It’s the deputy’s decision to do this. They have to later justify this action,” Couch said.
If the Teller County Sheriff’s Office does decide to add the PIT maneuver as a tool, their fleet of vehicles would need additional equipment installed to keep patrol cars from incurring major damage by performing the PIT.
