COLBERT COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) — The Colbert County Sheriff’s Office has seen a recent uptick in car chases around the county just in the past week.
It takes a matter of seconds for a driver to make the bad decision to lead a deputy or officer on a chase.
Recently, the Colbert County Sheriff’s Office has seen an uptick in pursuits.
“Around the time we have the Grand jury indictments come down, the number of pursuits go up,” Colbert County Sheriff Eric Balentine said.
Balentine tells News 19 that just a few days ago, there were three pursuits in one day, and several more the next day.
Colbert County Patrol Deputy, Tyler Barnett, has been in law enforcement for over six years. He said he has been involved in well over 100 pursuits, and he sees the most around this time, the start of the summer season.
“It’s hot, people’s aggression level, they’re patience levels. It gets very thin and even with those two, whenever it’s hot, people like hot weather,” Barnett said.
As the sheriff’s office sees more and more pursuits this season, as a deputy, there is a lot of training and a thought process behind and during car chases.
“Biggest thing in a car chase is our part is having to stay calm,” Barnett said. “We have a lot of parts to do we have to stay calm. I have to make sure we talk on the radio advised of the cities or state they are able to, and then most of all it’s just a public safety of our pursuits.”
Balentine says behind every car chase, it’s all hands on deck in the field, but also back at the office. Balentine tells News 19, a designated supervisor is the person who makes the calls on whether to pursue or let a car go in some car chase situations.
“Is the risk, worth the reward, is what we try to teach our supervisors,” Balentine said.
“Our most recent one, when you turn the lights on, the rear of the car will squat, and we’re like okay it’s game time here we go let’s let’s focus, so we’ll go ahead and call out, hey we are in a pursuit,” he said. “This is our charges, this is what’s going on, this is traffic, if it’s light, moderate and then our supervisor tells us to continue, or I’ll tell us to cancel”.
As we go into a busy pursuit season, the CCSO has a message to the community…
“We’re not gonna chase if it’s gonna endanger us or somebody else,” Barnett said.
Luckily, no deputies or individuals were hurt in the past few pursuits in the county.
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