The Deadly Risks of Tire Deflation Devices (TDDs) in Law Enforcement: Time to Reevaluate Their Use
How Tire Deflation Devices Are Costing Lives, Careers, and Agency Resources: A Call for Change in Law Enforcement Tactics
Tire deflation devices (TDDs) have cost too many law enforcement lives and careers. It’s time to consider the cost and reevaluate their value. During a large scale multi agency probation compliance initiative, the radio broadcasts an alert tone: a suspect in a vehicle shot at and hit, one of the vehicles from my agency. We were a mere 13 miles away before the pursuit was canceled about a minute after everyone got moving. The neighboring county sheriff made the capture. Total damages, one patrol car with a bullet hole and three state highway patrol cars with all twelve tires destroyed by another jurisdiction using stop sticks. This wasn’t the first or the last time where stop sticks had a negative or costly impact.
As a law enforcement (LEVO/EVOC) driving instructor, I trained officers with stop sticks during in-service training. Even in our closely controlled training environment, officers would question their safety. Their queries were fair and as training staff, we would let concerned officers know that we share their well-founded concerns. If they did need to deploy them, we told them to be behind a barrier, not their car, that could withstand a triple digit speed collision. Meanwhile, the TDDs were being drilled in the underside of every Crown Victoria trunk in our late 1990s fleet.
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2023 Colorado State Patrol deployment
A recent YouTube video features a suspect arrested following a pursuit in Colorado on June 20, 2023, but that is only where the story begins. The suspect had been driving in a dangerous manner intentionally causing traffic crashes and was pursued by local agencies eastbound on US 50. Following fleeing and eluding and a pursuit, a Colorado State Patrol officer employs a ‘precision immobilization technique’(PIT) maneuver, spins and captures the suspect but at this point the story shifts and began a new chapter.
The suspect was handcuffed and placed in the in the backseat of the same marked unit that had done the PIT maneuver on his car. Unattended, yet still on backseat video, he overcomes the restraints via flexibility and gets in the driver seat of the Colorado State Police cruiser that just caused him to spin out and sparks a new pursuit. A CSP captain is on scene and jumps in her car and the officer from the stolen cruiser joins her in the passenger seat. The captain begins calling for stop sticks up ahead.
On the third deployment the stop sticks work and the stolen CSP Dodge Charger strikes a semi at triple digit speeds and nearly overturns it. The front of the vehicle completely disintegrates causing a fire in the firewall of the vehicle. The suspect is alive, screaming, but entrapped. A heart wrenching effort to free this criminal as troopers and deputies are dismantling this vehicle with their bare hands. Since all the extinguishers were spent, there were cops pouring their water bottles on the car to suppress the fire. The suspect dies at the hospital.
Obviously, there were some serious issues, especially regarding monitoring the prisoner. But please, don’t blame the captain. That has been the training priority for 27 years. We have been drilling that into officers and commanders at every annual training. Why is that? If you commanded a large agency, were you informed that you were at risk of losing officers on TDD deployments? Probably not.
No authoritative research on tire deflation devices
No one knows how widespread the problem with TDDs is. There is no reliable data on the number of law enforcement deaths, the number of law enforcement injuries, the number of suspect deaths and injuries or the number of innocent bystander injuries and deaths.
This is an immense failure given that deaths have been occurring since 1996. I woke up at 4:45 a.m. on Wednesday, May 29,1996 and was getting ready for a patrol shift. I turned on the coffee and the news and received the tragic news on the loss of a local deputy:
Per ODMP “Deputy John Creegan struck and killed by a vehicle being pursued by other officers. Deputy Creegan had just deployed stop sticks in order to stop a stolen truck, driven by an 18-year-old. The driver of the vehicle drove off the road, around two patrol car(s), and then intentionally struck Deputy Creegan. As the driver continued to flee he was observed making obscene hand gestures at other deputies and laughing after he struck Deputy Creegan.”
This was the first law enforcement line of duty death in my career. Deputy Creegan also, according to my research, may have been the first law enforcement death due to tire deflation device deployment. I was honored to serve on the traffic detail for his funeral; an experience I remember somberly today.
I reached out to Dr.
, a friend and distinguished expert for his opinion. Like me, he trained officers in-service on the devices, and even advocated for their deployment before the long-term data came in.“Once I stepped back away from the prevailing law enforcement mindset, I saw tire deflation devices for what they were. We were asking officers to place themselves within a few feet of a speeding, two-ton vehicle, while holding a string with nails. We should only implement and promote technologies that keep officers and citizens safer, not ones that places officers in a more dangerous environment causing line of duty deaths.”
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and .The United States Department of Justice funds billions of dollars in research projects. I receive a list of their library additions every week. Here are a few from last week:
When was the last time there was a groundbreaking National Institute of Justice funded report that promised to revolutionize the way patrol officers do their job? Too often, these taxpayer funded reports are behind very expensive paywalls. In fact, the FBI, cannot accurately tell you how many law enforcement agencies there are in the United States. In 2012, a contributor to their Law Enforcement Bulletin wrote:
“According to FBI reporting, 2011 represented a deadly year for law enforcement officers killed while deploying spike strips to end dangerous high-speed pursuits. The use of spike strips began in 1996. Since that time, drivers have struck and killed 26 law enforcement officers, five in 2011—the most since 2003, which also featured five officer deaths.1 In at least one of the 2011 deaths, an offender intentionally struck an officer.”
How to avoid 50 line of duty deaths over the next 30 years
Today best estimates have line of duty death at a minimum of 42 over 28 years. A joint National Law Enforcement Officer Memorial Fund and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report that looked back a decade noted:
“…17 officers struck and killed while deploying these devices and an untold number of injuries. As of the writing of this report, there have been three law enforcement officers struck and killed in 2023, while deploying TDDs.”
It is shocking that a well-funded report would have to conclude ‘an untold’ quantity of injuries. Reflecting on the data we have now, we know that the national numbers are worse than our best estimates. Considering the mounting evidence, it's clear that tire deflation devices (TDDs) pose an unacceptable risk to the safety of our officers and the public. While the intention behind these tools is to de-escalate dangerous pursuits, the reality is that they often create new dangers that outweigh their benefits. Let’s prioritize technologies and tactics that protect lives, not jeopardize them.
Please keep all our peace officers in your prayers.
Roland Clee served a major Florida police department as a Community Service Officer for more than 26 years. His career included uniformed patrol, training, media relations, intelligence, criminal investigations, and chief’s staff. He writes the American Peace Officer newsletter, speaks at public safety, recruiting and leadership conferences and helps local governments and public safety agencies through his business, CommandStaffConsulting.com. His work is frequently featured on LawOfficer.com, the only law enforcement owned major media presence in the public safety realm.
He also serves as the Director of Engagement for Shepherds and Sheepdogs, LTD on the team hosting the inaugural conference in Orlando, May 12-14. Three days of exceptional speakers who will help you revolutionize the way we treat, train, and lead! Click below to find out more.
References
Law and Crime
https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs-virtual-library/wal
https://www.odmp.org/officer/14766-deputy-sheriff-john-joseph-creegan
https://www.bluesheepdog.com/2011/07/11/are-spike-strips-killing-officers/
This year we have lost two LEOs who were killed while trying to deploy tire deflation devices: Sergeant Brian Dulle of the Warren County (OH) Sheriff’s Office and Officer Bryan Hebert of the Beaumont (TX) Police Department. In both cases, the officers were struck and killed by the fleeing vehicle.
https://winningmindtraining.com/tire-deflation-devices-examining-risk-vs-gain-and-training/
https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs-virtual-library/wal
https://nleomf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Tire-Deflation-Device-Paper-NLEOMF-9.27.23.pdf
We had them in all our cars. The policy of being behind cover capable of stopping a vehicle at speed made deployment a low probability. I tried twice, terrifying once and too late to get set up the other. The only successful deployment I saw got the suspect vehicle, 2 cars from my agency needed 4 tires and 2 from other agencies lost at least 2.
Risk definitely outweighs reward. My agency policy on pursuits was so restrictive it basically made them impractical. My hometown is much smaller, they chase a lot more, and I've heard in passing have had more injuries from their use. Would be interesting if agencies tracked the data on them
While in training between 2008 and 2013 we took steps to remove these devices from our troops, the tactics of deployment short of being behind a cement pillar at a toll booth made it impossible to do safely, we got rid of them citing numerous cases around the country where we were intentionally placing our people in no win situations. I cant believe this is still a tactic utilized, so much for learning from our past mistakes.