Wacko On Meth Steals Washington State Trooper’s Cruiser

This is wild, and wonderful example of failing Police Operations 101

Maniac on meth carjacks state trooper’s patrol cruiser on Seattle freeway

A meth-fueled maniac is behind bars after allegedly dragging a Washington state lieutenant from the driver’s seat of her patrol car on a Seattle freeway and speeding away in the stolen cruiser, police said.

Alexander Eugene Smith, 24, was cuffed after the brazen broad-daylight heist sparked a wild police chase that ended when authorities rammed into the hijacked squad car, bringing it to a halt on the busy Christmas Day highway just before noon, according to an arrest report obtained by KOMO News.

The victimized Washington State Patrol lieutenant found herself lying on the pavement of Interstate 5 after responding to reports that a man was casually wandering across the lanes around 11 a.m.

Let’s watch

I dropped some replies to some of the vids, and I did ask a retired city cop friend of mine, and she agreed. You have

• Driving forward, back, forward, back, but, failing to park far enough away from the nutter, while also creating confusion for the traffic behind her
• Allowing the wacko to walk right up to her cruiser.
• Allowing him to open her cruiser door, which should be locked at all times. Basic police academy knowledge, and rookies get abused if they leave doors unlocked
• Being dragged out immediately because she was not wearing a seat belt, offering zero resistance

I won’t say that women shouldn’t be police. Many shouldn’t. Many men shouldn’t. But, this woman shouldn’t. She’s a lieutenant, for goodness sakes, and violated so many protocols that, at best, she should be put on permanent desk duty. Three police cars were damaged due to her incompetence. And, as my friend noted, State Police tend to spend a goodly chunk of their time enforcing traffic laws, which seems safe, right? No. Walking up on a pulled over vehicle can be very dangerous. One has no idea what is going to happen. Most of the time, things are fine. But, if things go wrong, there is nowhere to hide. And state troopers tend to operate alone, often with no one close for backup.

One has to wonder, if a lieutenant operates so poorly, what about the rest? Is she an aberration, someone who just flouts the rules, doesn’t care about them? Did she fail upwards? Do the others operate so poorly?

Perhaps she was about to exit the cruiser, but, that means she had horrible situational awareness. This will surely show up as a training video in many police departments as What Not To Do.