Keeping you and your family safe

Kristie's Law, a proposed measure, will reduce the number of innocent bystanders killed and injured as a result of vehicular police chases in the state of California.

California has one specific area of law which is unique among the 50 states. California Vehicle Code Section 17004.7 provides immunity to law enforcement for injury to and death of innocent bystanders even when officers do not follow the vehicular pursuit policy their agency has actually adopted. There is no accountability to innocent victims and the families left behind.

Vehicle Code Section 17004.7 goes on and on, but no where in this code does it say officers must follow their pursuit policy. Read carefully, there's even an escape clause regarding the requirement for officers to read their pursuit policy. Veh. Code 17004.7 (b) (2) reads as follows: "The failure of an individual officer to sign a certification shall not be used to impose liability on an individual officer or a public entity."

The proposed Kristie's Bill, that never became law, also addressed the need to conduct chases only when there is no other way to apprehend a fleeing driver who poses an immediate threat to public safety, i.e., to prevent future injuries and deaths.

You might want to read: Not So Black and White.

Candy Priano states: The hardest part is watching the slow progress. For more than 100 years, police pursuit and response call crashes have killed innocent bystanders and police officers.  Very little has changed.  The death of Kathy Porter clearly shows that not much has changed at all. This deadly combination of a police response call and chase has happened before: Tragedies that come to mind happened in PA, OH, CA as well as other states. These tragedies repeat themselves. .... Well-defined, life-saving polices need to be instituted and enforced. Too often life-saving pursuit policies are placed on a shelf and gather dust.

Innocent Bystanders Killed
Not one of these deaths resulted from a chase to catch a murderer, rapist or pedophile.

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..Brandon Harper ..Halley Lee ..Teale Sisson Desiree Guzman Steven Aveles . . Jason Siebert

More pictures & names of — and tributes to — victims of this crime.

Today, crashes due to police chases and police response calls kill more than one person a day, and a third of those killed are innocent bystanders. Vehicular police chases and police response calls kill at least five innocent bystanders every week in the United States. More...

Kristie's Law
Deadly Pursuit

Kristie's Law is a proposed measure first introduced to the California state legislature in 2003. It directly and pro-actively addresses safety standards to minimize the risk injuries and deaths related to vehicular police pursuits for the public and peace officers. Kristie's Law will create standards to ensure police pursuits are conducted in a response to an immediate threat to life or a serious crime. Another life-saving necessity is to require officers to follow their own agency's pursuit policy. California State Senator Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley is the author of Kristie's Law.

California: The Daily Journal, Perspectives—September 30, 2009—Underneath that rigid view of right and wrong is an implicit balancing test diminishing the value of the persons drawing the negative lottery ticket. That human roadblock [innocent bystander] is an abstract entity until the number is drawn. Thereafter, it is Kristie Priano. More on California's one specific area of law which is shamefully unique among the fifty states; it's Not So Black and White.

Worldwide, advocates for Kristie's Law believe in law and order. People who break the law, no matter what the crime, need to be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Advocates believe the penalty for fleeing and eluding should be mandatory prison time.

Could this happen to someone in your family?
None of these people ever thought it could happen to them.