At about 3:12 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 1, an Auburn, Massachusetts, police officer clocked two Dodge Challengers doing 60 mph in a 40 mph zone on Washington Street. When Officer Lareau tried to pull them over, both drivers took off at well over 100 mph, and he let them go. Both cars, police later said, were stolen.
The Auburn Police Department’s Oct. 6 account credits that decision not to chase for how the night ended: two arrests, made by officers who were waiting for the car rather than following it. It also shows how little Massachusetts law says about the act of running. Refusing to stop for a uniformed officer is a violation of Chapter 90, Section 25 of the General Laws, and the penalty written there is a $100 fine. Legislators have filed bills to change that in at least four sessions since 2017, and every one ended in a study order.
Stop sticks on the way back into Auburn
According to the department, Lareau backed off and put the cars out over the radio rather than start a high-speed pursuit. Officers from neighboring departments kept track of the Challengers. One crashed, its driver climbed into the other, and that car kept going. Then the radio traffic said it was headed back toward Auburn…