CrimeBeat Q&A: How do officers use spike strips without disabling uninvolved cars?

CrimeBeat Q&A is a weekly feature where police reporter Julie Johnson answers readers' questions about local crimes and the law.

I'm always reading about law enforcement deploying “spike strips” to stop a vehicle during a chase. How can the police do this so that other cars driven by innocent people don't accidentally drive over the strips as well?

Curtis Short, Santa Rosa

A spike strip is a tool law enforcement officers use to deflate the tires of a vehicle, typically to stop a fleeing crime suspect behind the wheel. Stored folded up, the device has steel spikes and expands like an accordion when an officer throws or pulls it across the road. The CHP's spike strip is about 24 feet long and can stretch across two traffic lanes.

CHP Officer Jon Sloat said it's ideal to use a spike strip when there are few or no other cars on the road and with a team of other officers creating traffic breaks to keep uninvolved drivers from rolling over the strip.

But that's not always possible.

“I have spiked innocent people myself,” Sloat admitted. “You have to weigh risks versus gains.”

The spike strips are designed to mitigate the risk to drivers, whether they are suspects or uninvolved motorists, he said.

The 1- to 2-inch steel spikes are hollow to “control the tire deflation rate, preventing a blowout and sudden loss of control,” according to a brochure for the Stinger Spike System, made by Illinois-based Federal Signal Corporation and used by the CHP in Santa Rosa. The company estimates the tires deflate over the course of 12 to 20 seconds.

Using spike strips can be dangerous for officers. From 1996, when they were introduced, through 2011, 26 officers deploying spike strips have been struck and killed by drivers, according to the FBI. In 2007, CHP Officer Scott Russell was killed while deploying a spike strip on Highway 50 in El Dorado County when a fleeing burglary suspect deliberately swerved to hit the officer. The bureau advised law enforcement agencies to “weigh other options.”

According to Sonoma County Sheriff's Office policy, deputies must get a supervisor's approval before deploying a spike strip.

“Deputies should carefully consider the limitations of such devices as well as the potential risks to deputies, the public and occupants of the pursued vehicle,” the policy states.

Last year, a spike strip put an end to a 25-mile pursuit on Highway 101 from San Rafael to Sonoma County involving an intoxicated Rohnert Park driver who had her two children, ages 1 and 5, in the back seats.

Several uninvolved motorists drove over a series of spike strips tossed over the road to stop the driver before CHP officers shut the highway. With tires deflated, the woman's vehicle came to a stop on the Cotati grade, but she ignored officers ordering her to exit the car, and she revved the engine, spinning the rims on asphalt, eventually creating a rooster tail of sparks that set the car on fire.

Officers rescued the children and their mother before fire engulfed the car.

Submit your questions about crime, safety and criminal justice to Staff Writer Julie Johnson at julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.