Friends Of Crash Victim Allege LAPD Cover-Up
Friends of a Brentwood woman who was killed in a collision with a Los Angeles Police Department cruiser last month held a vigil this week and called for an investigation into whether the patrol car was speeding to an emergency call without its lights and sirens on -- a practice that was banned by the department in 2004.
Friends and family of 25-year-old Devin Petelski call the practice "silent running" and have started a Facebook page to urge the LAPD to take stricter measures to "end" that kind of driving. Police have said the cruiser was not speeding but that it was, in fact, responding to an officer-assist call for a burglary in progress when it crashed into Petelski's BMW shortly before midnight of Oct. 15.
Friends and family say the cruiser in question can be seen in photographs just after the collision with its lights out. Police say that the woman pulled out in front of the cruiser as it headed east on Venice Boulevard at Glyndon Avenue near Venice High School.
"The impact also caused the police car to spin around in a southeast direction and run into a traffic sign and tree, injuring the two officers in the car," states the LAPD.
One witness told KPCC (89.3 FM) that they watched the patrol turn onto Venice Boulevard from Lincoln Boulevard and then turn off its overhead lights as it went east.
Det. Jesse Ravega of the LAPD's West Traffic Division said "silent running" is "not a practice" of the department and that, "I've never ever heard of it. It was something that was brought up in cyberspace. Someone found a catchy phrase."
However, the department did have just such a practice under a different name before it was overturned under the leadership of Bill Bratton in 2004. It was called, in department parlance, "code 2 high," and it encouraged officers to race to emergency calls with lights and sirens off.
The practice allowed officers to race to the scene of crimes-in-progress such as burglaries, bank robberies and assaults without tipping off the bad guys (and girls) that they were en route. However, Bratton banned the practice and put the LAPD's response policy in line with other departments: It was either obey the road rules, or run with lights and sirens ("code 3").
"Code 2 high -- we no longer have that," confirms Officer Rosario Herrera. "I understand that was years ago. Code 2 is of priority, but not as priorty as code 3, but get there as fast we can."
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| Devin Petelski |
Friends and family of 25-year-old Devin Petelski call the practice "silent running" and have started a Facebook page to urge the LAPD to take stricter measures to "end" that kind of driving. Police have said the cruiser was not speeding but that it was, in fact, responding to an officer-assist call for a burglary in progress when it crashed into Petelski's BMW shortly before midnight of Oct. 15.
"The impact also caused the police car to spin around in a southeast direction and run into a traffic sign and tree, injuring the two officers in the car," states the LAPD.
One witness told KPCC (89.3 FM) that they watched the patrol turn onto Venice Boulevard from Lincoln Boulevard and then turn off its overhead lights as it went east.
Det. Jesse Ravega of the LAPD's West Traffic Division said "silent running" is "not a practice" of the department and that, "I've never ever heard of it. It was something that was brought up in cyberspace. Someone found a catchy phrase."
However, the department did have just such a practice under a different name before it was overturned under the leadership of Bill Bratton in 2004. It was called, in department parlance, "code 2 high," and it encouraged officers to race to emergency calls with lights and sirens off.
The practice allowed officers to race to the scene of crimes-in-progress such as burglaries, bank robberies and assaults without tipping off the bad guys (and girls) that they were en route. However, Bratton banned the practice and put the LAPD's response policy in line with other departments: It was either obey the road rules, or run with lights and sirens ("code 3").
"Code 2 high -- we no longer have that," confirms Officer Rosario Herrera. "I understand that was years ago. Code 2 is of priority, but not as priorty as code 3, but get there as fast we can."
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