'You don't keep on driving . . .'

February 4, 2009 at 11:56AM

After Sam Salter, 40, was arrested, State Patrol Sgt. Carrie Rindal placed him in the back seat of her squad car and they engaged in a vigorous debate. Their voices were recorded on a police video. Rindal refers to the "P.I.T. maneuver," short for "pursuit intervention technique," which she used to ram her patrol car into the left rear fender of Salter's van.

Salter: ... I really didn't expect you to hit my car. ... I just thought it was extremely unreasonable....

Rindal: OK. What we do is called the P.I.T. maneuver.

Salter: It was fairly obvious.

Rindal: No, it wasn't fairly obvious. That's why I did the P.I.T. maneuver.

Salter: So you thought I was going to slow down and then take off because I was obviously slowing down and pulling over? You hit me when I was next to the curb so I don't know where you thought I was going.

Rindal: Well, you kept driving. ...

Salter: I drove from the corner to here.

Rindal: You drove all the way from 94 and Earl to here.

Salter: Right, which is the safest spot to stop between where I saw your lights.

Rindal: Well, that's why we are in this spot that we're in, Samuel. When you see red lights and sirens, you don't keep on driving and driving and driving [so] you decide where you are going to stop. We decide that.

Salter: I understand that, but I feel that I [didn't] have a safe place to stop between where I saw your lights and here.

Rindal: OK, well that's why we're at where we're at, OK? Next time, maybe you'll realize that we decide where the safe spot is.

Salter: I'm not a criminal. I'm not trying to evade you. I was not trying to run away.

Rindal: OK. I don't know that. All I know is that I'm behind a vehicle that's not stopping when my red lights and siren are going.

Salter: ... I slowed down and I pulled to the side and I was looking for a safe place to stop. That corner on 61 seemed to me hidden from the rear as you went around it. It's slippery. I didn't want to stop on a dime. I was really trying to be safe.

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