Caught on video: Officer hurls spike strips during car chase
PORTLAND, Ore. - The driver of a car that sped through Southeast Portland and nearly crashed into a home was taken to a hospital after a police officer hurled spike strips into the car's path as it roared by.
A violent crash soon ended the high-speed pursuit early Friday morning. Part of the chase was caught on video.
Police said the chase began at about 1:20 a.m. near SE 115th and Bush Street when officers spotted a 2000 Cadillac DeVille driving at a high rate of speed on Bush Street and attempted to stop the car when it ran a stop sign.
As the chase neared SE 82nd Avenue and Holgate Boulevard, a police officer can be seen on video hurling spike strips just as the car speeds by him. Police cars with sirens sounding follow close behind.
Police said the spike strips were effective in deflating the car's tires.
Six blocks later, near SE 77th and Holgate, the driver, identified as 35-year-old Richard Millican, lost control, went over a curb and crashed into a van parked in a driveway. No one was in the van. Neighbors estimated the car was going 50 mph when it crashed.
"It wasn't but a couple of seconds later I heard a huge crunch," Harold Tracy said. "I could see the car buried up there," he said of the crash scene.
Neighbors said that had the van not been parked where it was, the speeding car could have plowed into an occupied home.
The vehicle ended up in the yard of the home, just feet from large glass windows where residents watched police and medical personnel take the driver away on a stretcher and remove the mangled Cadillac.
Police said Millican was taken to hospital for injuries suffered in the crash but did not say what condition he was in.
A search of the car resulted in the discovery of methamphetamine inside the vehicle, police said.
Millican was issued citations for attempt to elude in a vehicle, driving while suspended, reckless driving, criminal mischief and distribution and possession of methamphetamine, police said in an email.
This was a disaster not a success.  It was a huge wreck with major property damage that could have killed many people.  The cops made out like they are heroes but this was not the correct way to handle the situation. High speed chases are for Hollywood not Portland Oregon.  Let the guy go he is not going far don't endanger everyone on the road. If this guy was a local methhead you will get him next time.  Most of the time he is just creeping around trying not to get noticed the only time he runs is when the cops are chasing him.
AWESOME video of the officer throwing the spike strips. Is it possible to slow down the video so we can see it better?Â
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Great job by the officer. Obviously not time to deploy them the traditional way and he put himself at risk to slow this offender down. Nerves of steel!! Sure would like to see that previous blogger provide data about "spike strips causing MORE damage".  Sounds like bunk to me and in my expieriance (30+years), it just ain't so. Strips seriously slows the offenders speed down and works the engine and transmission  HARD. When you remove 4-5 inches of radius off a wheel, it cannot maintain the same speed.  Driver has to further slow down to maintain a semblence of control. Â
@Brownknight "Driver has to further slow down to maintain a semblence of control."
Does not sound like this statement applied to the chase as the car lost control and crashed with in 6 blocks, according to the article.
"Neighbors said that had the van not been parked where it was, the speeding car could have plowed into an occupied home." And if the car had crashed into the house and killed people there would be no reason to review the actions of ALL involved?? We could simply be satisfied that the car was eventually stopped??
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It does no good for people to randomly pick apart each others statements rather than focus on moving forward and improving. I believe your intentions are sincere and will assume we are subject to miscommunication. I thank you for your service and wish you a good evening..
I knew the guy that was involved in the accident! Â He was a career criminal and is NO good on the streets and the fact that meth was found in his possession! Are you kidding me Its not the cops fault they have to try to stop these crazy people who have not a care in the world. Another Tweeker off the street and nobody was hurt GO COPS!
I find it incredible that the mindset of anyone here is to sue the police.
How about the perp? He is the one responsible for all the damage. But the degenerative mindset of today's society is to 'sue the police'.
Just wow.
 @Jack_Bauer Some people lose all perspective when shyster lawyer puts the thought of a big payday into their head.
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 @Jack_Bauer Those same people if he had killed someone or done more damage had cops not used a spike strip would then be blaming the police for NOT doing such actions. You can't win with some people.
So many angry, agressive responses.
" it was the friggen loser in the Caddy that caused the accident! How about we just let him fly until he misses a corner and goes through a house at 120 MPH instead of the van at 60 MPH?"
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Yes, the driver of the Cadilac is responsible, however without looking to the beginning of the chase before making absurd statements we lose the ability to effectively learn from our actions. For example, was the danger of pursuing this car into a residential neighborhood greater than the need to issue a few tickets?
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"Â liberal Multomah county Democrat", Really??
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I am curious as to how some of you feel about civilian casualties in combat zones. One might infer that they are clearly acceptable AS LONG AS it makes a soldiers job easier. And no, this analogy is not that much of a stretch when analyzing the situation start to finish. Keep the end goal in sight, is it to save lives or simply stop traffic violators at all costs?
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I do appreciate the police for the job they do but, like all of us, there must be an unemotional review of our actions in order to improve or simply reinforce a particular position. Â
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 @33 hey thats losser is my babby brother no matter what your oppinion remember that is someones son brother uncle a person that people love no matter what yes he is a mess right now but we all love and hope for the ones we love please dont wish death on anyone thats just wrong
@brenda I was simply quoting anoher reply. However, Your brothers actions were incredibly wreckless and endangered many lives, includng his own. He has a lot to answer for.
Way to go KATU, now that is news, also way to go PD good job.
Good to see in a visual format what the duty sworn men & women of law enforcement do every day. While visually impressive, the reality is that this officers training and professionalism undeniably saved his life, and more than likely saved many others lives as well.Â
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Unless I missed something in the article, spike strips didn't stop him. Â The officer threw them at him, possibly because he didn't have time to place them on the road. Â Maybe those who are against using spike strips should volunteer to stand in the middle of the road and see if that will stop the bad guy. Â It would make a great video.
@boomer "Â Maybe those who are against using spike strips should volunteer to stand in the middle of the road and see if that will stop the bad guy."Â
Or... a little more intelligence and discretion could be used. The danger of chasing people into residential neighborhoods has frequently been shown to have disasterous consequences. SPike strips clearly have their place in the LEO's arsenal of tools but shoud be used with the end result of stopping the criminal AND NOT compounding the amount of damage that can be done.
@33 That is exactly why spike strips were invented. That is exactly why policies change that include the pursueing officers update the shift supervisor on surrounding conditions as the pursuit progresses. That is why officers are now trained to be cognizant of the fact that backing off a pursuit may be the best thing under certain conditions. That is exactly why officers are now trained in PIT manuevers. Tactics change and training changes. What you propose, just letting them go, is arbitrary and encourages pursuits to commence. Officers have backed off of pursuits and shut down, yet the suspects may continue on at high speed until they cause an accident anyway.  There is no 100% answer, but your insinuation that not intelligence or discretion is being used is incorrect and is a very, very dated. I left the road eleven years ago and those processes were in place then, locally and in most places in the nation.
@Brownknight Well stated.Thank you.
That was not aimed at you at all. See; lee986321's statements.Â
As for the review of actions, officers do not want to lose the right to pursue, nor do they want to encourage pursuit. Most are debriefed and reviewed by supervisors to determine what worked and what could have worked better. Finding the best course to avoid liability includes discretionary use of pursuit, not eliminating pursuit. Other quick points. Residential areas are generally not high traffic areas except for peak commute hours. Pursuits in these areas are often less dangerous that business districts. I know it sounds bad, but they have a higher number of low or no traffic hours than many rural areas. As far as the driver of this car, he had two miles to figure out driving on steel wheels is not effective, yet he pushed on. Most quit, and I am quite sure he was going much slower than he could have been. He has the inate ability of being more stupid than we are clever.Â
@Brownknight "Or... a little more intelligence and discretion could be used." was aimed at boomer's ridiculous statement.
I blieve you also conveniently overlooked another statement, "Â review of our actions in order to improve or simply reinforce a particular position.", which you seem to support in your statement.
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Your words, "Sure would like to see that previous blogger provide data about "spike strips causing MORE damage". If this is aimed at me I must admit I am at a loss since I can not find words that might expand your comprehension skills. You greatly misunderstand my statements.
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If I were a lesser man I might think you are the same caliber of officer that would afford VPD detective Free the courtesy of several "get out of jail free" cards. As it is I will simply believe you choose to interpret things differently than others.
@boomer "Police said the spike strips were effective in deflating the car's tires."
 @katiemcc  @boomer According to the witness in the video sparks were flying from the cars rims unless I missed something this PPB deployed them the right way. Had the skel seen them ahead of time he may have just driven around them...
We need to start putting these people that elude in prison for 20 year or more. These perps put lots of people in danger, as a matter of fact they should be charged with attempted murder. The state needs to build more prisons to "warehouse" these criminals. Probably not going to happen but I guess I can dream.
I couldn't agree more @lee986321-
If the heme owner so wanted to they could sue the police department for damages, it was the deployment of said spike strips that caused the accident. The officer failed to use discretion. I am all for capturing the bad guy, but it has been proven again and again that stops sticks can lead to fatalities. Some agencies no longer use the stop sticks.
 @lee986321 In your theory, what percentage of blame for the collision with the van is the responsibility of Mr Millican?
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I'm not attempting to be dismissive of your position, but if you are attempting to place blame on parties for the damage to the private property of a non-participant in this incident, shouldn't you also be willing to address the culpability of the person being persued?
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>' but it has been proven again and again that stops sticks can lead to fatalities.'
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I would be very interested to see some of this data to which you are referring. In my research, 'spike strips' are typically heralded as preferable to high-speed persuits when it comes to fatality/injury avoidance with regards to failure to yield protocols. While I do find a number of studies that suggest that non-felony (precursor crimes, not the act of failure to yeild its self) persuits should be banned, I cannot find a single study that comes to the conclusion that their use should be banned. Â
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 @lee986321 Actually, nothing in the article says anything about the spike strips actually working.
@Nobody The article quite clearly states that the strips were effective in deflating the tires. Sounds to me like they worked just fine.
 @Nobody Alright, Mr Nobody...you go back and read the article 10 times! There will be a pop quiz. And no bathroom breaks! ;-)
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That's OK...you're not the first. nor will you be the last.
You're right. Sorry, I missed that on the first read.
 @lee986321 Spoken like a true liberal Multomah county Democrat. OOHH the cop should not have used spike strips and failed to use discretion.  I am sure you would be whining that the cop should have used spike strips if the maggot would have killed someone. law enforcement did the right thingÂ
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 @Civ "Spoken like a true liberal Multomah county Democrat."
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Spoken like a true catchphrase quoting idiot.
Civ, sadly, Lee is not an Oregonian, he's (Sob) a resident of Washington....Forgive us. :)
 @lee986321 I would much rather have to file a report with my home owners insurance (and the driver of the vehicles insurance, etc) than hear about someone being killed by some maniac driver who was trying to evade the police.
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Considering the road was already wet, it was literally a matter of time before the driver hit another car or a person. The police acted rationally and appropriately in this case - trying to take the driver off the street as quickly as possible.
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If it comes to the fatality of the driver? Sorry - no sympathy here, they shouldn't have been running from the cops.
 @lee986321 Nooooo... it was the friggen loser in the Caddy that caused the accident!  How about we just let him fly until he misses a corner and goes through a house at 120 MPH instead of the van at 60 MPH?  As long as we're arm-chair-quarterbacking, it sounds to me like the cop probably saved some lives.
@lee986321 And if they hadn't deployed the spike strip and the driver killed someone, would that persons family be able to sue due to the officers not doing all they could to safely stop the reckless driver?
Bet that driver's punch was spiked, too.
Another bad guy taken down by the spike strips....awesome.
 @Kachina And tax payers money will go for paying for the guys clean and repairs to the guys van house, and not so good, the home owner is now with out a vehicle to get to work.
Still think it is cool?
 @lee986321 Absolutely, Lee. As cool as it gets!
 @lee986321  @Kachina It is still cool because this idiot was already speeding in excess of 100 mph before the police started chasing him. You think he wasn't going to cause damage or even kill someone without the spike strips?
 @lee986321  @Kachina The perps insurance will pay if he had any. And if he didnt the home owners insurance will pay minus a deductible.
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@lee986321 Letting him go and have him run down an innocent person on the street? Or continue to let the bad guys wreak havoc on the law abiding population? Yep, I still think it's awesome that he was stopped, and no one but him was hurt.
 @lee986321  @Kachina That's what insurance is for, you know. If the driver has insurance, then it's required to take care of the damage done. What their insurance doesn't cover, the owners insurance (home and vehicle) should take care of.
 @lee986321  @Kachina So we should just let all the crooks go is what I hear you saying since stopping them is to risky...Ya that really sounds like a swell plan...
Department won't pay anything on this. The driver of the fleeing vehicle caused the damage. Can't blame spike strips as they are designed to deflate at a controlled rate to allow the driver time to stop. If he doesn't it's on him.