I'm uh penel County Sheriff Bob gualter and we're here today to announce a new initiative in penel county that responds to the epidemic of people running from the police during attempted traffic stops as we all know police Pursuits are dangerous especially in very densely populated counties like pelis County and for those aren't aware pelis County if you've ever driven here you'd appreciate it is the most densely populated county in the state of Florida when people drive fast and they drive Reckless ly they put others In Harm's Way and it leads to serious injuries and death and that's what happens when people run from the police they drive fast and they drive Reckless and too many times it leads to innocent people bystandard being seriously injured and sometimes killed the examples abound of people in pelis County across the State of Florida and across the United States running from the police the police pursuing those people and it resulting in tragic consequences the data establishes these incidents abound and that they are deadly according to crash data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Institute fatal crashes from police Pursuits alone so these are the Pursuits involving death not just Serious injury so just death alone kill on average one person every single day in the United States that's a mom a dad a husband a wife brother or sister killed because someone made the bad decision to flee from the police the number of police res Pursuits across the United States their result in death continues to rise in 2019 there were 362 fatal crashes from police Pursuits in the United States in 2020 455 in 2021 525 and in 2022 577 people died as a result of a police pursuit that's a 40% increase in fatal traffic crashes from police Pursuits between 2019 and 2022 because of the danger and our desire to protect innocent lives the penel County Sheriff's Office significantly narrowed our Pursuit policy in 2014 now think about this for the six years before the policy change in 2014 we averaged about 100 Pursuits a year in the penel county sheriff's office in the 10 years since the policy change in 2014 the penel County Sheriff's Office averages 10 Pursuits a year and last year in 2023 in the entire agency we only had five Pursuits now the lower number of Pursuits doesn't mean that people don't flee what it means is that we don't actively engage in dangerous high-speed Pursuits when they do flee because we value life over traffic violations and over property we do pursue when it's worth the risk when someone is is engaged in a violent crime they are a threat to the community or they are engaging in extremely dangerous driving and Must Be Stopped we will pursue and stop that dangerous person unfortunately just because we're not putting people at risk by not pursuing and the number of actual Pursuits are way down that doesn't mean people are not running from the police they are fleeing and quite honestly it is out of control in pelis County multiple cars run from us every day it's getting more and more frequent and it's got to stop since January of 2022 there have been 1,042 cases where people have committed the offense of fleeing and looting by running from a pelis County Sheriff's deputy when directed to stop 1,042 times since January of 2022 and that 1,42 number is just the penel County Sheriff's Office alone and it does not include the number of times that people have run from officers of the 10 other police departments in penis County that's 142 I'm sorry 1,42 times innocent people were needlessly put In Harm's Way because someone didn't want to be accountable for breaking the law I'm now going to play a video for you that shows what we see and what our deputies see every single day across penel County when people are directed to stop and they flee at the end of the video you'll see the deadly consequences the second to last video clip you'll see in the sequence is of a crash that occurred on October 2nd 2020 22 on 62nd Avenue North in St Petersburg when three teenagers ages 15 and 16 stole a car and ran from depies the driver crashed the car and he killed his 16-year-old friend the last video you'll see in the clip happened on May 18th of this year at East Bay Drive in Missouri Avenue in Largo when Willie Lee Daniels fled from an attempted traffic stop ran a red light and struck an ambulance transporting a 70 70-year-old transplant patient from tap General Hospital to orgo Medical Center Daniels was traveling so fast and Reckless that he caused the ambulance to flip and the driver of the ambulance suffered life-threatening injuries so we go ahead and play this video 14 Charli 105 go ahead 14 charer vehicle fing eastbound [Music] 54 L 30 Tiffy he's about to fle got [Music] TR off [Music] 14 [Music] Alpha pass with southbound copy can I 494 21 cop [Music] 19 27 Delta R Charlie it's black Infinity nor 19 to D it yeah it's black Infinity clean single black m driver all right I'll be listening oh it's dipping I'm going for the pit tag ala Sierra Z three Indigo Juliet and a charger he's about to fle watch out watch out stop stop it's on a silver Honda La Harbor two they're fleing going south bound with Mull BR up 124th going motorcycle No Tag E's [Music] it's fing it's [Music] fing goon Road and railro AV Florida Bravo zero Tango Echo Papa it's a black BMW hatchback and it looks like it's going to be back East get showall get in front he's high rate and he's still blacked out passing 12th Street uh I know we're on Bravo so if we can get some of these oh and he's going to lose it right here crash he's crashing uh [Music] 602 all right [Music] [Music] so I showed you a lot of video clips because it's happening a lot the one on uh your left there is the still photo from the crash on 62nd Avenue when the kid was killed in the one of the rights ambulance that flipped uh a couple of weeks ago the main reason why people flee and attempt to lud the police is because the driver is drunk somebody's possessing drugs they got a suspended driver's license or they have an outstanding warrant and sometimes because the car is stolen and there's a simple solution to the problem if you violate the law don't run from the cops and most importantly don't hurt or kill someone because you don't want to be accountable for your actions fleeing and looting is a felony in Florida the answer to stopping people from fleeing and looting is not as some agencies have done is to loosen Pursuit policies and Chase more all chasing more does is cause more injuries and More Death remember the number of deaths from police Pursuits increased 40% between 2019 and 2022 so the answer here in pelis county is to cause a consequence that matters the people who flee from the police and causes them to stop the nonsense stop running so effective next Tuesday uh June 11th anyone who runs from a pelis County Sheriff's deputy when directed to stop will have their car seized and forfeited under the Florida Contraband forfeiture act so making this real simple for everyone if you're directed to stop by the police stop if you don't stop and you run we're going to take your car and we're going to sell it you won't have your car anymore and you won't have the opportunity to run and endanger others lives so here's how it's going to work if you own the car and you're the driver and you flee we will get you stopped or find your car later and whether that's a day later a week later or a month later we'll find you we're going to arrest you we're going to find your car we're going to seize it and we're going to sell it if you're driving a car that you don't own a car that belongs to someone else a family member a friend then you will cause them to have their car seized and sold your friend your mom your dad your brother or your sister will lose their car if you run from the police so if a car flees and the owner is not the driver who fled the owner will be provided with written notice that a specific person who was driving their car committed the felony crime of fleeing and alluding in their vehicle they'll be told that if the same person does it again then we will seize their car and sell it so the message everyone needs to be responsible and if you're given a written notice that a person you let drive your car ran from the police don't let them use your car again and if you do and they run again then it's on you and you're going to lose your car the same thing applies to rental car companies now I'm just going to tell you the way it is is that there are some rental car companies out there that cater to those involved in criminal activity especially drug activity people rent cars from these rental car companies they engage in drug dealing and they run from the police we find the car abandoned we impound it the car rental companies send someone to pay the tow fee they take the car they put it back in the fleet to rent again and the cycle repeats itself many of these car rental agencies know exactly what's going on these car rental agencies need to be good corporate citizens and help us stop this nonsense of people running from the police and rental cars so if someone flees from us driving a rental car will serve the rental car company with written notice that the person committed the felony of F and alluding in one of their cars and if the person does it again then the car they are driving at the time of the subsequent fleing and alluding will be seized and subject to forfeiture proceedings so the message to rental car companies is be good corporate citizens if you're put on notice that a person fled from the police driving one of your rental cars don't rent to that person again if you do you run the risk of losing your car we're implementing this new vehicle seizure program because the situation with people disregarding the law fleeing from the police and putting others In Harm's Way has to stop 1,42 incidents for the pelis county sheriff's office alone since 2022 means it's out of control police Pursuits are dangerous and should be reserved only for the most egregious situations so the best way to get this excessive running from the police to stop is to take the cars of people who do it and sell their cars so this is real simple if you own a car and value it don't run for from the cops if you own a car and value it don't loan it to someone you know runs from the police if your business is renting cars and you value your cars don't rent them to people you know run from the cops so beginning next Tuesday June 11th we will take steps to make pelis County a safer place to drive so that's what we're doing does anybody have any questions Sheriff do you know of any other law enforcement agencies who have put something like this into effect in what what results did they see I don't know anybody that's done it I think we're first I don't know if any place in the country that's implemented a program like this I don't know of any other place in the State of Florida that's implemented a program like this sherff what statute allows you to do this is it based on new law no it's not new law it's something we're taking advantage of so under the F and eluding statute is it says that any vehicle uh that is used to flee and elude is deemed to be Contraband under the Florida contraband forfeiture act and under the Forida Contraband forfeiture Act is this is allowed this is permitted this is authorized so it's taking to two statutes it's taking the fora Contraband forfeiture act it's taking the fleing and looting statute and putting this program together Sheriff what does the department plan to do with the proceeds from the sales do what we do with everything uh that is authorized under the forfeiture act donate them to charity put them into kids events put them into public service initiatives um those things that do good for the community they're not going to be used to supplement any operating expenses Etc is is that um we'll donate them to good causes in the community uh like we do with other things that we seize proceeds from other things we seize we're not going to put them into service we're going to sell them and again send a message and there's an easy solution to the problem if you don't want to lose your car don't run from the cops this isn't hard and you know people need to stop they need to listen and those who are enabling it or it by allowing these people to use their cars just don't do it if you know again you got fair warning this isn't if you don't if you own a car and you own it to somebody and you're put on notice that this is what they've done just say no go ahead is there any worry that this will lead to more vehicle effects no I tell you what it does lead to and I'm going to tell you right now and for anybody that's listening watching hearing this is don't play this game what it's going to lead to is is that people are going to erroneously claim their car was stolen when it wasn't so don't play that nonsense with us because if you claim because what they're going to claim is that well I loaned my car to soand so but I didn't really loan it to them oh my car was stolen so if we find out that uh you report to us your car was stolen because obviously if a car is stolen and somebody engages in fleeing a loading then we're not going to take that owner's car because it's legitimately stolen that's not fair to them uh but what I'm concerned about is what's going to happen is is that there's a way around this some of these people are going to it's a friend it's a neighbor it's a boyfriend girlfriend whoever it is are going to say oh well I didn't know my car was stolen well if we find out that you made a false police report then you're going to jail for that sheriff will the will the vehicles be compounded while the the alleged crimes are adjudicated can you explain that process so we will seize the car uh we'll file the petition with a court and the car will sit during the litigation proceedings uh for the forfeiture so yeah a car could sit for a very long time uh could sit for a year uh you know people always always have the opportunity uh to um concede if you will in the proceedings but because it's a vehicle we have to uh proceed with court action in order to get the vehicle titled so that we could sell it and dispose of it so it's going to happen uh where it does take time yes more of a technical question do you have the space for that amount of cars or make the space okay there's nothing this is important this is a big deal and that's why I showed you the video and and and I only showed you it seemed like a lot but I only showed you a handful this happens every single day it's ridiculous and so I don't care what it takes is is that we are going to make the roads of pelis County safer we're going to make people safer we're not going to allow people to be put In Harm's Way just because people want to run from the cops because they don't want to be accountable for their actions and just like we saw a couple weeks ago you got a 70y old guy that's being transported from Tampa General to Argo Medical Center to get a transplant and this guy who uh didn't want to stop is hauling f pass Northbound on Missouri blows the light at East Bay flips that ambulance that's wrong so you know I we'll make the room for the cars that's the least my problem at least my concern what role does the license plate readers have in your Pursuits and looking at cars like this they're going to have a role in it because when these cars are subject to seizure so somebody runs from us and we aren't able to get them at the moment because they got away and and we're going to take the tag and we're going to put it in the license plate recognition system and so that means it's going to be a complete Force multiplier so that means the cops throughout the county if they see that tag or that tag is seen by the license plate recognition system will be able to stop that car and seize it so does a deputy have a license plate reader in their car that will read a license plate instead of calling it in yes and how does that work so every single one of our Cruisers is equipped with a dash camera and those dash cameras have license plate recognition built into the cameras to clarify that written notice policy does that apply even if the driver is the owner of the car or only if it's a different uh owner only if it's different so if the driver if the driver is the owner and they run there's no notice required excuse me we have to show that the driver uh is the owner uh we're going to and we and we can show that is is that we'll seize the car immediately there's no prior notice required if you're doing it and you own the car you're going to lose the car so you know here's your notice is don't run from the cops I mean this is real simple this is pretty black and white there's not a lot of gray of this and you can see from these is all these people are doing this intentionally they're doing it deliberately they know what they're doing they make a decision to run well we're going to make a decision that you're losing your car Sher if you mentioned reasons why people might flee any any idea what's behind this increase this is a huge increase Nationwide yeah because probably quite honestly is is that they're doing it with a lot of them too many of them are doing it with impunity because there's no consequence for it and they know in so many of these because you know we're trying to do the right thing we're trying to do the right thing by the community by not IND dangering people with these police Pursuits you know so you know when you have over a hundred a year and these highspeed Pursuits that are going throughout the county in the most densely populated county in the state it is dangerous it's putting people In Harm's Way it's putting our deputies In Harm's Way so we've been trying to do the right thing but a lot of times quite honestly they know that we're not going to chase so um they just they can get away with it so we got to put some skin in the game there has to be um consequences and let them know that they can't do it with impunity anymore so I think that's why we're seeing an increase quite honestly sure you mentioned the license plate readers more passively looking for these cars would there be any additional resources allocated to kind of go out and actively look for them no we don't need to do that um because again with the deputies out there and if a deputy had a car run from them uh they'll know it so if they were patrolling the same area they see the car without the license plate recognition system alerting them to it they could stop the car we find the car parked in a parking lot we find it in an apartment complex Etc we're just going to seize the car so the deputies will have the ability to visually uh see the car and then take action and the LPR system or license plate recognition system is just a massin force multiplier that will alert us and alert them so that they can take action because again they may not know because it was another deputy week ago uh that the person ran from so but as far as we don't need to uh it it'll all fall into place I think by itself the rental car companies you mentioned are they local car rental car companies or national if any place if a car is in pelis county and there's a rental car office in pelis County we're going to serve notice on them so it doesn't matter who it is could be any of the national companies you know local companies Regional companies you know and this also applies people there's a lot of apps that have popped up where people will rent their cars to others same thing applies in those cases again we're going to treat those as um where it was an owner who didn't have knowledge and so we're going to put the person with Toro or some of these others that we're going to put them on notice and this person they ran from us it's your car here's a written notice of it don't rent to them again and if in the name of making a buck you rent to them again in and then they use your car and they run from us you're going to lose your car so you know everybody's got to step up in this a little bit and be responsible would you say that the ambulance Collision was the motivating incident for this policy change no I got sick of seeing it um and and this was already in the works before the ambulance incident because I see it every single day and in the reports we get the daily summaries from control I see it every day and sometimes multiple times a day and I'm sick of it tired of it and and and there's no excuse for it again this is a deliberate intentional knowing act this is no accident this isn't I made a mistake this isn't this is I'm getting the heck out of here because I don't want a consequence for my action in the crime I'm committing whether I got dope whether I got a stolen car whether I got a suspended driver's license whatever it is I don't want to get in trouble so I'm just going to run and do this nonsense and you know that's that's the the Catalyst for it a lot of these kids are teens how do you reach them some of them are probably still in high school in committing CRI how they don't watch the news how do you reach these kids well I guess if the kids don't own the car and Mom and Dad get put on notice the kid ran from us or whoever owns the car gets put on notice um then we're saying to the community everybody needs to contribute to solving this problem and don't let that kid drive the car again you know if a kid owns the car then again we don't I don't we don't need to provide notice the kid made the decision to do this then the kid's going to lose the car so you know I'm not worried about it what I am worried about is this that's what I'm worried about and I don't see any more of it what if you're not able to identify the driver I know you said you provide the name to like the family member what would be the procedure there well if we can't identify the driver you know quite honestly then there's all we can do um so you know if the driver's not identified um in the majority of the cases we're able to identify the driver uh and through a number of different investigative methods some they can the deputy can just visualize and can see the driver knows who it is and some of these people are running from us time and time again the deputies know who the people are they see the car it's a game of cat and mouse and these people will run from us without even the deputy attempting to traffic stop so without even um activating Emergency Equipment they see the cruiser and they just take off and the deputy just says the heck with it because they know what the consequence they know we don't chase for it you know and some of these people too is is that what makes it dangerous is even in that situation when we don't chase and we don't pursue is they still engage in that very very dangerous Reckless high-speed driving because on their own without even being chased is they're trying to get away from us because they don't want us getting close they whether we're chasing them or not they're engaging in this because they're trying to get away from us in fact this wreck up here the ambulance wreck up here at East Bay Missouri the deputy wasn't even close in the vicinity the deputy was way far back he got tried to get stopped over here onton Road he came eastbound made a Northbound turn on summon of Boulevard and was just flooring it and gunning it the ambulance was only doing 35 miles hour because they had a 70-year old transplant patient in the back he blows the red light and the deputy isn't even around because he's trying to get away from us all right thanks everybody appreciate it