CHP MEMORIES

Back in 1982-83, our fleet of patrol cars was mostly Dodge Polara's, with a few Ford Mustangs. Both had small block V-8's, and the horsepower numbers weren't anything to brag about. The Mustangs were much lighter, so the weight to horsepower ratio was much higher, and that contributed to a faster top speed. The Dodge's & Mustang's were prepared identically, but there often was a lot of difference between the cars, in respect to their performance. The top speed of the Dodge's was in the 110-120 mph range, and most all of the Mustangs would attain a top speed in excess of 120 mph, and a few approached 130 mph.

I was working the swing shift, on a hot summer day in 1983, and the southern section of Interstate 5 was my responsibility, from State Route 152 on the north, to Panoche Road on the south. This was about 50 miles of freeway on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, an area of mostly farmland. I was driving one of the Dodge's, and the day was unfolding as pretty routine.

In the late afternoon, the routine of the day was sharply interrupted when the dispatcher broadcast that an armed robbery had just occurred at one of the gas station/mini markets on I5, approx. 20 miles north of my location. The suspect vehicle was described as a dark blue, late model Camaro, and was last seen southbound on I5. I knew that one of my friends was working at this particular business, but there was no information about the robbery, other than a handgun was the weapon used.

Rather than head north, trying to spot the southbound Camaro, I decided to wait on the SR165 (Mercy Springs) overpass, approx. 8 miles south of SR 152. I knew that there was a good possibility that if the suspect traveled south to SR152, he/she might go either east or west on that cross highway, and I would be out of the picture. My wait was only a few minutes, when I spotted what looked like the suspect Camaro pass under the overpass, still traveling southbound. By then, I had a Merced County Sheriff with me, and we both hit the southbound on ramp, just as the Camaro went by. We were in plain sight, and as soon as we took off, so did the Camaro. I can't remember what make of vehicle the Sheriff was driving, but I left him in the dust rather quickly as the Dodge I had that day was one of the faster ones in the office. By the time I got up to top speed, which as I recall was just a little over 120, the Camaro was a good distance in front of me. When I alerted the dispatcher that I was in high speed pursuit of the suspect vehicle, I requested that the next CHP Area to the south (Coalinga) be notified, and that the CHP fixed wing aircraft based in that office, either get airborne, or if it already was, for it to head in my direction. For 50 miles or so, it was just me and the Camaro, and fortunately, there wasn't a lot of traffic. Apparently, my Dodge was just a little faster than the Camaro, as I slowly gained some ground. In this situation, without any close backup, lots of things race through your mind, like the possibility of this guy stopping, and then it's just you and him if he decided to shoot it out. Fortunately, that didn't happen.

The farther south we went, the closer we got to the next CHP Area, and some help. There were a couple of Los Banos CHP Officers trying to catch me, but they were many miles behind. I learned that the CHP Aircraft wasn't in the air, but the Coalinga Area had a couple of units headed north. When we passed Panoche Road, we were in Fresno County, and now in the Coalinga CHP Area. I also had requested that if Coalinga had any Mustangs on duty, that they send them north, as our speeds were pretty consistently around 120 mph. Coalinga CHP and Los Banos CHP were on different radio frequencies, with two different dispatch centers. There is a statewide frequency (blue channel) that I utilized to communicate with the northern most Coalinga Officer who was in a Mustang. As we approached his position, I remember telling him to get going on the shoulder before we passed, otherwise he would be left in the dust. As we passed, he was accelerating, but had not gotten up to any significant speed, and indeed, we left him far behind. A few miles farther, the second Coalinga unit was also in a Mustang, and he was up to about 100 mph when we passed.

By the time we were approaching the Coalinga turn off, approx. 100 miles south of where the pursuit started, the first Mustang had caught up, and there were now 3 CHP units behind the Camaro. Fresno County Sheriff Deputies were also trying to keep up, not very successfully. The protocol for these types of chases, that go from one CHP area to another, is for the primary role to switch to whatever area the pursuit is in. When there were sufficient troops behind this guy, I dropped out, and headed for a gas station, as I was almost out of fuel. The coolant temperature in my patrol car was well into the red, and I remember having to run lots of water on the radiator to cool the thing down.

While I was at the gas station, the dispatcher called to tell me that the robbery suspect had run out of fuel, and he was taken into custody without incident about 5 miles south of where I dropped out of the chase. I remember thinking that I was happy the guy got caught, but that I narrowly missed the pleasure of putting the metal bracelets on an armed robber.