November 7, 1991

On November 7, 1991, I was assigned to Central Traffic Division working alone in the Rampart Area as Unit 2M3 (motorcycle).

I was just finishing up a traffic stop on Montana Street just west of Alvarado when I heard the following broadcast on my police radio: “2A55 is in pursuit northbound Alvarado at Beverly.” That meant the pursuit was very close and coming right toward me. So I mounted up and chose a tactically sound position from which to observe the festivities.

The next broadcast was “2A55 is still northbound approaching Sunset in pursuit of a Code 37 (stolen) vehicle.” 2A55 followed this with the vehicle description (brown Toyota van) and the license number. They also advised that the vehicle was occupied by the driver only and gave his description.

About the time they were finishing up the broadcast, the Toyota goes by right in front of me, still northbound on Alvarado, with three black and white police cars hot on its tail. LAPD policy only allows two vehicles to be in pursuit unless there are extenuating circumstances. And none of those can be motorcycles if four-wheeled vehicles are available. So I just watched them go by and then started to follow at a safe speed and distance (no red lights or siren). The pursuit continued northbound on Alvarado and then they turned left to westbound on Berkeley. The Toyota again turned left to southbound Allesandro.

They were outrunning me but an air unit (helicopter) arrived. By listening to the radio and watching the helicopter it was easy to keep track of the relative location of the pursuit. They were now going south so I made a U-turn and also began going south on Alvarado. Then the Toyota turned left to eastbound on Scott Avenue (toward Dodger Stadium) and passed right in front of me again as I stopped southbound on Alvarado at Scott. Then everyone headed south on Glendale Blvd with me trailing safely behind again. I got left behind again but heard on the radio that the suspect had turned left on Bellevue. On Bellevue, the suspect crossed Sunset again (now northbound again) and then turned left on Everett.

Bingo! Everett is a dead end street that ends at a park that is up on a hill. The easiest way out of the park if one decides to run, is to take a long, long stairway (150-200’) down. At the bottom of the stairs is Innes Street. Well, I knew all of this but the suspect apparently did not. I decided to head over to Innes Street at the bottom of the stairway and see if our suspect decided to run down the stairs.

So I did, and he did, and by the time he got to the bottom of the stairs and saw me he glanced back and saw some officers barreling down the stairs after him and he just gave up. I didn’t even get dust on my boots.

I just love a good pursuit and believe it or not, this is an accurate portrayal of what happened. I have a few others I’ll write about later.