By NATE KING
Salina Post
A suspect is still at large after leading Salina Police officers on an early Wednesday morning pursuit.
Salina Police Sergeant Tonniges said this morning that at approximately 12:46 a.m. an officer attempted to perform a traffic stop in the 700 block of Highland Avenue on a gray Ford Focus with a defective tag light.
"The vehicle slowed down came to a stop, but then rapidly accelerated away from him [the officer]," Tonniges said. "They [the suspect] went down Highland Avenue, onto Bond and Fourth Street before turning onto W. Ellsworth Avenue and then down to East Cloud Street."
The officer was unable to keep up with the suspect's vehicle and discontinued the pursuit.
Tonniges said the Salina Police Department is following up with the registered owner of the vehicle, but nobody is in custody connected to this crime.
When asked how officers determine when to call off a pursuit, Tonniges said there are multiple factors to consider.
"Reasonable and Prudent is the language that is used and that really is dependent on a lot of things. Time of day, the type of street it is residential or commercial. Is the road a main thoroughfare? What is the reason you are stopping the vehicle? He's got a taillight out versus he's somebody that just robbed somebody."
Tonniges added that Salina Police officers review and evaluate every pursuit.
"So there's a supervisory review and similar to our use of force review," Tonniges said. "It goes through several layers of supervision where we definitely scrutinize that and we are very careful about pursuits. This is a high liability, very dangerous activity so we don't take it lightly."