Senator seeks safer roads
and greater protection for police officers

According to Senator Jim Alesi (R,C-Perinton), the Senate passed legislation he sponsored which would make it a class A misdemeanor to force a police officer to engage in a high speed chase and a class B misdemeanor to disobey a police officer when directed to stop a vehicle. The bill also makes the act of attempting to elude a police officer and causing physical injury to the police officer or a third person a class E felony.

The bill, S.974, is designed to protect police officers and other motorists by deterring suspects from attempting to flee police. While the bill is targeted at reducing dangerous high-speed chases, it also covers low-speed pursuits in which drivers ignore an officer's command to pull over but obey all other traffic laws.

Currently, a person who forces a police officer to engage in a vehicular pursuit of any kind is charged with "failure to obey a police officer," which is violation of the Vehicle and Traffic code. In comparison to the strict penalties created by the Alesi bill, this is a relatively lenient violation that makes individuals, calculating that the penalties if caught are not great, more inclined to attempt to outrun from the law, the senator stated in a press release.