Fremont PoliceYou know that moment when your phone’s on one per cent battery, and you’re just willing it to live until you can get to a charger?
Well, imagine you were relying on your phone to catch a potential criminal and you can start to get an idea of how Officer Jesse Hartman felt on Friday.
The officer was in hot pursuit of a suspect who fled from Fremont, California in a ‘felony vehicle’, causing a high speed chase which reached peak speeds of about 120 miles per hour on the highway.
Listen to what happened when the officer realised his car’s battery was running low:
I can’t say I really know much about how the police work but I’d imagine the possibility of a suspect making a run for it is always a risk. It happens The People vs. OJ Simpson and in Friends, so it can’t be that unexpected.
Therefore you’d assume police would be prepared for this eventuality by making an effort to always have a full tank of petrol, or a fully charged battery if you’re driving a more environmentally friendly car, like Hartman’s Tesla.
According to Wired, the current lifespan of a Tesla battery pack is about 300,000 to 500,000 miles, but unfortunately it seems the police dropped the ball when it came to charging the car and less than 10 minutes into the chase Hartman received a notification saying he only had about six miles worth of battery life left.
Wikimedia CommonsAccording to the East Bay Times, Hartman had to radio dispatch to inform them he might not be able to continue the chase he was leading.
He said:
I am down to six miles of battery on the Tesla so I may lose it here in a sec.
If someone else is able, can they maneuver into the number one spot?
Now, some people might argue that this is what happens when you try to be environmentally friendly but I’d like to point out that Hartman could have just as easily been running low on petrol.
PixabayHowever, it turns out police were unable to continue the chase anyway, as shortly after Hartman notified dispatch of his low battery the car he was chasing began driving on the hard shoulder of the highway to avoid thickening traffic.
As a result, police had to call off the chase for safety and the authorities pulled off the highway and began heading back to their city, though Hartman had to make a pit-stop to recharge first.
Geneva Bosques, a Fremont police department spokeswoman, told the East Bay Times the Tesla had not been recharged after the previous shift, meaning the battery level was lower than it normally would have been. She reportedly could not provide details on why it hadn’t been charged, though ABC7 report the previous user simply forgot to plug it in.
The spokesperson also pointed out other officers were available to take over the chase if necessary, so the Tesla wouldn’t have been the downfall of the chase.
Fremont PoliceAs for the car they were chasing, California Highway Patrol found it crashed into some bushes not far from where the chase was called off, though the driver has not been located.
Fremont’s police department became the first to introduce a Tesla into its patrol fleet earlier this year as part of a pilot program to determine whether electric vehicles are suitable for police use on a larger scale.
Department leaders are expected to report on whether the Tesla has been successfully integrated into duty to the city council later this year, and though Fremont Police Capt. Sean Washington said in July things were going well with the Tesla pilot program, this unfortunate low-battery blunder might have knocked the officers’ confidence in the cars.
I think the moral of the story is, always make sure your car’s battery is charged before setting off on a high speed police chase.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.