Thursday morning, Aug. 11 at 12:16 a.m. a deputy on routine patrol heard a Germantown Police Officer conduct a traffic stop in the area of Hy 167 and I41.
The officer was requesting a second squad car for assistance. The deputy was within .3 of a mile of the Germantown Officer and responded to the scene to assist. As the deputy was exiting his squad car, he observed the vehicle accelerate away from the traffic stop at a high rate of speed.
The vehicle is pursued for several miles through the northwestern part of the Village of Germantown until the operator’s driving becomes too dangerous to justify continuation of the pursuit. Germantown Officers were able to locate the vehicle in the Cabela’s parking lot in the Village of Richfield after both agencies initially terminated the pursuit. The operator had turned off all the lights in an effort to conceal the vehicle.
Several of our squads were in the area and the vehicle continued to flee around the building once confronted. At one point a Germantown Police Officer and a Sheriff’s Deputy had the vehicle partially blocked in. As the Germantown squad attempted to block the vehicle in, the officer exited his squad and ordered the suspect out.
The suspect then backed into the Sheriff’s squad causing minor front end damage and then drove around the Germantown squad nearly striking the officer.
The vehicle then fled southbound on US 45 at which point Sheriff’s Deputies terminated the pursuit again. The registered owner is a 41-year-old New Berlin woman. Contact was made with New Berlin Police Department and the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office to watch for the suspect vehicle at the residence.
Both departments end up locating the suspect at the residence as she was pulling into the driveway. She becomes resistant with the officers and punched one of the officers in the face. She ends up getting struck with a police baton and Tazer deployment as she continued to resist.
She is arrested for OWI 1st and battery to a police officer. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office is also requesting reckless endangering safety for her actions at Cabelas, and she will be transferred to the Sheriff’s Office from the Waukesha County Jail when available.
Deputies may pursue as expeditiously and safely as possible any person in a vehicle who the officer has reasonable suspicion to believe is eluding apprehension after having committed a traffic ordinance violation or criminal act. Officers are required by department policy as well as state statute to drive with due regard for the safety of all persons and take multiple factors into account in the decision making process whether to continue a pursuit. In this case it was determined that the risks to life and property outweighed the benefit derived from the immediate apprehension or continued pursuit of the vehicle. The policy worked exactly as designed and the diver was ultimately arrested without putting the general public, the officers or the suspect at more risk than needed.