Three days after the tragic death of documentary editor Karen Schmeer, the story is still reverberating through the media, in large part because of the senseless and newsworthy way in which she died.
It wasn't just a hit-and-run, it was a hit-and-run that involved petty criminals - shoplifters who grabbed over-the-counter allergy medicine (often used to make crystal meth). And the early reaction seemed to uniformly condemn the perpetrators.
But now, some are wondering if the NYPD is not, at least partially, to blame. The NY Daily News posits differing accounts of the fatal crash:
"A police source said cops tried to pull over the suspects minutes before the crash, but they lost the car momentarily.
When they caught up with the vehicle, it had already struck Schmeer, as well as several other vehicles.
Witnesses at the scene painted a slightly different picture, saying they saw the car weaving in and out of traffic going north on Broadway with a squad car with lights and sirens blaring in hot pursuit."
The Livable Streets Initiative's Streetsblog posts today and references the contradictions, wondering "why officers would be engaged in a high-speed pursuit on the Upper West Side at dinner time on a Friday.":
"Schmeer's death marks the latest in a string of deadly crashes in which pursuing officers are suspected or known to be involved. Last spring, Streetsblog talked to several witnesses who said a car thief was fleeing police when he hit and killed 38-year-old Greenpoint mother Violetta Kryzak. The commanding officer of Brooklyn's 94th Precinct said the department had "no indication" that a pursuit occurred...
The list goes on, and the question remains: How can NYPD support its claim that it did nothing wrong when witnesses say otherwise?"
Today, the Daily News followed up their previous story with a more detailed police account of how the pursuit came to be:
"The trio raced from the drugstore without putting the Dodge's headlights on, drawing the attention of NYPD cop Michael Monteverde, who attempted to pull them over.
The speeding Dodge blew multiple red lights on Broadway and was weaving in and out of traffic, Monteverde testified, according to the complaint.
One of the robbers ditched the car but cops did not catch up with the Dodge until after it had struck Schmeer, police sources said.
Monteverde testified that he collared McKie in a foot chase after spotting him exiting "the driver's side" of the Dodge, while another accomplice jumped out of the passenger side."
A commenter here argued for more accountability from the city:
"If the questions are not put to the NYPD and Mayor soon, this incident will fade away just like the others. NYPD will continue to run deadly high-speed chases on our streets."
Another on Doculink raised a similar argument:
"(I)t sounds like this disastrous outcome could have been avoided. It's another example of police officers making the decision to catch the bad guys at all costs, even if it means putting people's lives at risk."
In July 2002, the FBI released a law enforcement bulletin entitled, "High Speed Police Pursuits: Dangers, Dynamics and Risk-Reduction". It begins:
"High-speed police pursuits and the inherent risk of injury and death that can result constitute an important law enforcement and public safety issue. Police pursuits are dangerous. Available data indicate that the number of pursuits continues to increase, as well as the number of pursuit-related injuries and deaths. A traffic accident constitutes the most common terminating event in an urban pursuit, and most people agree that these pursuits should be controlled. Yet, researchers note a widespread lack of accurate data on the subject.
Officers face the basic dilemma associated with high-speed pursuits of fleeing suspects: Do the benefits of potential apprehension outweigh the risks of endangering the public and the police? Research indicates that too many restraints placed on the police regarding pursuits can put the public at risk. On the other hand, insufficient controls on police pursuit can result in needless accidents and injuries."
The bulletin is essentially a call to have the highest possible threshold met before engaging in a pursuit:
"The most effective way to reduce risks is to terminate a pursuit. Clearly, too many pursuits continue that officers obviously should have terminated. Research on pursuit data and statistics show that termination dramatically could reduce traffic accidents, fatalities, and injuries. Police must reevaluate their thinking and mission. Agencies rarely can justify endangering the public to pursue a violator."
Meanwhile, friends and family continue to mourn their loss and plan ways to memorialize Schmeer. Here's Sunday's NY Times story about the accident with quotes from friends and collaborators. And here's a great article from the Oregonian that remembers the Portland native:
"She once lugged a platter of lasagna on the subway for more than an hour to a friend's house for dinner. She loved to bake and often showed up on friends' doorsteps with pies or a crowd-pleasing chocolate cake with her secret ingredient -- sauerkraut.
This weekend, friends and family gathered in cities across the country to mourn their loss."
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