Millburn Police Conduct a High Speed Chase in Maplewood

https://villagegreennj.com/towns/maplewood/millburn-police-pursue-stolen-auto-thru-maplewood-resulting-in-1-arrest-and-2-totaled-cars/#:~:text=A%20high%2Dspeed%20pursuit%20of,the%20arrest%20of%20the%20suspect.

A high-speed pursuit of a stolen BMW by the Millburn Police through Maplewood resulted in damage to two vehicles at Prospect and Parker — just east of Columbia High School — and damage to a property on Prospect, as well as the arrest of the suspect.

The Maplewood Police Department reports that they were “not involved in the vehicle pursuit but assisted in the arrest” of the suspect, who fled on foot after crashing the stolen BMW.

A local resident reported on SOMA Lounge, “The stolen car totaled our friend’s car which was stopped at the light going down Parker toward CHS (my wife was in the front passenger seat) and the Millburn police totaled another vehicle that was passing through the intersection with the green light. Everyone is very shaken but okay. Thank god for the air bags.”

Do we need to actually remind the Millburn police that the recovery of a stolen car (even a really nice one) is not worth risking lives?  **** cowboys.

I didn't see anything, but I was close enough to the intersection at the time to hear 3 thumps of cars being hit (and I didn't hear any screech of tires before the thumps), so here was my thought process as it happened: 

First I guessed it was the sound of how car chases come to an end. Then I saw an officer's lights turn on (maybe within several seconds after hearing the hits), which made me pretty sure my guess was correct. 

I kept going away from the intersection as I figured more emergency vehicles would soon be incoming, and also in case the thief, who was likely now trying to run from the scene, was also armed. 

I'm still a bit mildly shaken, and find myself expecting cars to randomly fly through intersections now. I wasn't even close enough to the intersection to see what happened. I'm glad no one was seriously hurt, but the Millburn Police's decision to chase the stolen vehicle (and do these chases ever conclude without a big accident at the end?) likely caused many people to have much more severe negative mental responses in addition to the physical issues and property damage caused. 

Maybe they caught the thief, but it wasn't a happy ending.

For what it's worth, here is the NJ Vehicle Pursuit policy, along with some background.  Seems like it would be pretty easy to drive right through it.

https://www.nj.gov/oag/force/docs/Vehicular-Pursuit-Policy-Addendum-12.15.20.pdf

Jasmo said:

For what it's worth, here is the NJ Vehicle Pursuit policy, along with some background.  Seems like it would be pretty easy to drive right through it.

https://www.nj.gov/oag/force/docs/Vehicular-Pursuit-Policy-Addendum-12.15.20.pdf

They changed the policy since then to reverse some of the rules.  Pursuit is allowed again for car theft.

https://newjerseymonitor.com/2022/04/29/n-j-reverses-policy-that-barred-cops-from-pursuing-stolen-vehicles/

So police shouldn’t apprehend car thieves unless they’re parked?  wtf,

BarneyGumble said:

So police shouldn’t apprehend car thieves unless they’re parked? wtf,

The idea is that police shouldn’t endanger lives over a hunk of metal, plastic and rubber.

Yeah, but this was a Beamer, and from Millburn.  So what if two other cars right near the high school in Maplewood got totaled and a passenger could have gotten killed.  

DaveSchmidt said:

The idea is that police shouldn’t endanger lives over a hunk of metal, plastic and rubber.

Right. And to try and recover one stolen vehicle, two others were totaled, according to the article. One was totaled by the pursuing officers themselves.