Carbon County Deputies Use Retired Jail Van To Practice Immobilizing Moving Cars

Deputies with the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office spent some time spinning and pushing each other all over the runway at Rawlins Municipal Airport for the county’s first-ever Tactical Vehicle Intervention (TVI) training.

TVI, commonly known as a precision immobilization technique (PIT) maneuver, is a tactic where a law enforcement vehicle ends a pursuit by striking the pursued vehicle at an angle, forcing it to spin into an uncontrolled stop. Law enforcement agencies have been using it since the 1980s, but Wyoming has bucked that curve.

Now that the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office has the right tools, Sheriff Alex Bakken and a few deputies commenced with the training. Their hapless victim was a vehicle that’s been with the department longer than most people currently working there.

“Blue Van, which is very near and dear to our hearts, has been an old jail transport vehicle for many years,” Bakken told Cowboy State Daily. “It was a fixture of the office, but it had finally worn out its effective use. Instead of getting rid of it, Blue Van was reassigned to this assignment, where it continues to serve us faithfully.”

Pursuing Better Options

Bakken described vehicle pursuits as “a reality” in Carbon County. With I-80 and Highways 130, 287, and 789 crossing the county, perps are going to attempt to dodge law enforcement by putting the pedal to the metal.

“One of the primary focuses of our office is the safety and well-being of all people, suspects and the motoring public included,” he said. “The quicker we can safely terminate a pursuit, the better for everyone.”

In Bakken’s view, TVI training is the next logical step in enhancing the safety and capabilities of the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office. The Wyoming Highway Patrol has already incorporated the tactic into its policy, and now Bakken and his deputies can become “more effective partners” when engaged in vehicle pursuits.

“As our office grows and progresses, we need to make sure that our training and our protocols grow and progress as well,” he said. “Suspects fleeing in motor vehicles pose a great risk to our community, and it is our responsibility to find ways to safely manage these occurrences, whether it be by calling off a pursuit or utilizing methods to bring vehicle pursuits to a controlled and deliberate end.”

Comes With Costs

Any law enforcement vehicle can do a PIT maneuver, but some are better built for them than others. Bakken said the primary reason the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office hasn’t done TVI training before is that it didn’t have optimal Police Pursuit Vehicles (PPVs) for the task.

“The number one factor is having a PPV vehicle designed to hold up to the rigors of law enforcement,” he said. “Whether it's aftermarket shocks, an upgraded brake system, or a heavy-duty alternator, these vehicles are designed to be safely driven at high speeds.”

Another critical addition is a specialized TVI bumper, which allows a safe and effective maneuver to be executed while minimizing damage to the PPV. Those vehicles and the bumpers are expensive but, in Bakken’s view, necessary to ensure safety and success.

The Carbon County Sheriff’s Office recently acquired three Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Z71 PPVs, with specially installed packages to accommodate high-speed pursuits. These were the vehicles used during the department’s TVI training at Rawlins Municipal Airport.

“In the past, we used to just buy your cheap, base model vehicles that weren't appropriate or effective for law enforcement use,” Bakken said. “As we're updating our patrol fleet, we actually have PPVs that are up to the standard of law enforcement use.”

That’s not to say a classic Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor couldn’t do an effective TVI, but it would probably come out worse for wear. Modern PPVs are built for the tactic, and that’s better for everyone involved.

“I'm a firm believer that anything can be done with enough confidence, but we feel a lot more comfortable with appropriately upfitted vehicles, rather than trying to upfit an older vehicle that may not be appropriate for this type of maneuver,” Bakken said.

By The Book

The Carbon County Sheriff’s Office isn’t going to be trying to implement TVIs for every vehicle pursuit, or even for pursuits in the near future. Bakken said his deputies are being trained in groups rather than all at once.

Furthermore, the addition of TVIs to the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office’s pursuit policy is being reviewed by a legal review team before it becomes official policy.

“Since our TVI training and phased implementation are not yet codified in our policy, it will not be utilized until such a policy is finalized, subject to legal review, and officially adopted,” Bakken said. “The first step is to ensure that we approach this tool in a thorough, safe, and sustainable manner.”

TVIs won’t become the default tactic in vehicle pursuits. The existing policy for the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office says any deputy who engages in a pursuit “does so at his or her discretion,” and they’re expected to end it when the danger compromises safety.

While TVI training is valuable, Bakken said it’s not a “one-size-fits-all problem.” One aspect of the training is determining when a TVI is appropriate based on the circumstances of the pursuit.

“We do our best to make sure that we think about all the consequences, both intended and unintended, that can come from any new policy implementation,” he said. “There's a lot of thought, consideration, training, and policy review and revision that goes into that, and there may be some pursuits when a TVI maneuver just isn’t safe.”

PIT Performance

Carbon County and the Wyoming Highway Patrol might have the right tools for TVIs, but that isn’t true across Wyoming. Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak said the costs of TVI bumpers and training time have prevented his department from pursuing the policy.

“We may do (TVIs) in the future, but we don’t do it now,” he said.

Bakken said the latest training sessions with his deputies have been going well. They brought in a TVI instructor to train the deputies in the technique while they battered and spun Blue Van across the runway.

“When the time comes that we want to implement TVIs into our pursuit policy, we'll have a good foundational background,” he said. “Our training didn’t go well for our old Blue Van and other decommissioned vehicles, but for deputies and the material we were utilizing, it was great.”

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.