Woman Steals Running Ferndale Police Car, Crashes It
(Crystal A. Proxmire, July 5, 2019)
Ferndale, MI – A Ferndale Police officer was only a few feet away from his patrol vehicle, handling a civil situation, when a 24 year old woman jumped in and drove away.
She later crashed the vehicle into a parked car on Seven Mile and Stoepel.
The woman was taken into custody and is expected to be arraigned tomorrow afternoon. According to police she is a resident of either Clinton Township or Detroit, and appears to have a mental health issue.
Residents who learned of the crash on social media questioned why an officer would leave their car running.
Sargent Baron Brown told Oakland County Times, “The officer’s vehicle was running because it is a matter of practicality for an officer to leave their car running at various times throughout a shift. Officers are in and out of their cars 20-30 times a shift and turning your car off each and every time regardless of the situation would be unreasonable and not make sense in many situations. There are electronics that must remain powered up and signed-on that often go down when a car is turned off. In addition, emergency equipment can drain the battery of a vehicle that isn’t running.
“While in this instance the officer was not using his emergency equipment, he was within approximately 10 feet of his scout car the entire time he was dealing with a complainant in a civil dispute. He was also in and out of his car repeatedly trying to assist the man with his predicament.
“A preliminary inquiry into this incident do not reveal any policy or rules violations and nobody feels worse about it than the officer. This is a freak occurrence that has never happened, not only in my experience with Ferndale-24 years but in the experience of our most senior officer-38 years. We are however, reviewing this incident for policy or rule adjustments that may come out of it.”
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