State Police have reported a significant increase in vehicle pursuits in and around Capitol City over the past year. Non-compliance issues have also been on the rise in police agencies throughout the state. According to Sergeant John Perrine, some police departments have updated their pursuit policies, but the state police still have the discretion to decide when to end a chase.

“With all of the safety concerns in mind a lot of our pursuits get terminated but we will continue that pursuit in many cases,” said Perrine. “We work hard to ensure the safety of our community and part of that is enforcing laws. These laws are for purpose, these laws are so people can feel safe in their own neighborhoods and we take a lot of pride in making sure the road is safe for others.”

Perrine believes that building relationships with the community is crucial for police to gain trust and cooperation when solving crimes.

“We recognize a vast majority are supportive of police,” he said. “The overwhelming majority of police officers are out here working hard, doing it the right way, with the right intentions to make their community safe. There’s a select few people who choose to try to live beyond those laws and push the envelope a little bit and those are the ones that are making our community unsafe.”

Perrine emphasized that encounters with individuals in the community, whether during traffic stops or otherwise, are never routine.

“99.99% of our interactions go on a day-to-day basis go exactly like you would expect them to go,” he said. “Whether that would be helping somebody, issuing them a ticket, even making an arrest. The vast majority of those go without incident. But then we have that small percentage of the people who choose otherwise and then the police are required to react upon the choices of someone else.”