He had her license plate number, so by by the time she sped off he would already have known she was the owner of the car.
Heck, before he stepped out of his patrol car he would know who the owner of the vehicle was and where she lived. So, who is she really running from? Let her go, they know where she lives, works, if those are her children, or not, and if she had any other traffic violations and or what criminal record she has. All this before he even confronted her.
Or have you never heard of the way the traffic officers can now have all the information off your license plate number before they even step out of their police car to confront the driver?
>> He had her license plate number, so by by the time she sped off he would already have known she was the owner of the car.
That’s fine... but it’s not an ending.
She is not in her home town, or even her home state. You’re the cop — QUICK! why is she speeding away? What’s she doing in NM with a van full of kids? Are they her kids? Where will she take them and what will she do with them?
>> Let her go, they know where she lives, works
You’re honestly suggesting that the cops should have just let her go and do whatever and every few days maybe their counterparts in her home town should check to see if she had returned home and then... what? Hand-delivered her a ticket from another state with a polite request to pay it?
And what if later that night she got stoned and drunk in a motel, piled those kids back in the mini-van, and then rolled it, killing all on board? Would you be among the FReepers screaming for the heads of the cops who “could have” detained her the day before?
You’re engaging in armchair quarterbacking here. This is simply not a case of egregious gestapo tactics. It’s a snap-judgment call that actually ended up to be the right one, in spite of all the misleading conjecture about “shooting innocent kids” and such.