Proposed Valentine’s Law aims to reduce police chases

By Jazmine Knight

Lawmakers are looking to crack down on those who flee from law enforcement with a new bill in honor of a Missouri detective who died during a police pursuit.

Senate Bill 901, which is called Valentine’s Law after Detective Antonio Valentine, would change the punishment associated with fleeing the police. Currently, fleeing the law enforcement in Missouri is only a misdemeanor. However, with the approval of this bill, the offense will now be a felony.

The goal is to make suspects less likely to flee, as well as protect officers and community members.

Several local officials agreed this is something they support.

“Inherently, car chases are one of the most dangerous things that a police officer does because there’s so many outside controlled factors,” said Brendan McGinnis with the Northwest Missouri Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge Three.

Some of these factors include traffic, weather, the type of crime committed and the speed at which the offender is going. McGinnis says about 70% of the time, it’s not worth the risk.

If arrested for fleeing, you are required to spend one year in jail (up to 7 years), with sentences increasing based on the circumstances. If a person creates a substantial risk of injury, it will result in a Class D felony. A Class B felony comes when the person causes physical injury, and a Class A felony if the person the causes death of another.

Stark discussed how previously, law enforcement made the decision to not engage in high-speed chases unless it was a violent felony. Instead, they would use aircraft, undercover surveillance or other technology to track them down, according to Justin Stark, a Missouri representative.

However, this was unsuccessful. They found that suspects still continued at high speed even without a cop behind them.

“Also, when we would find them later and conduct an investigation and try to hold them accountable, it was too often a misdemeanor offense, which means they were put right back out on the street,” Stark said.

Stark hopes this bill will protect citizens and keep police and neighborhoods safer.

“I’m sad to say, but the victims that were injured and killed because of this made this issue a priority,” Stark said.

“If you put in place a felony penalty for somebody who tries to flee arrest in their vehicle, it should have a deterrent effect,” said state Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer. “Less people are going to engage in that type of criminal behavior if they know they can face prison sentences because of that.”

For him, the biggest difference between this bill and past legislation is that this enhances the existing penalty.

“They’re not just going to get probation and get a slap on the wrist and be back out in the streets where they can harm more individuals,” he said.

McGinnis said upon approval, they like to police this issue using education then enforcement.

“So word is getting out and people do read the news and it’s all over social media. So this is sort of the education piece,” McGinnis said.

Stark, who personally worked with Valentine, said he’s truly proud to honor his friend at all times.

“This man is the real deal. He was a public servant and he dedicated his entire life to public service,” Stark said.

He believes that Valentine purposely put his life on the line to save others.

“I even believe that he saw that fleeing vehicle and he did what he had to do to stop it so nobody else would get hurt, hit and killed, and probably saved lives that day by sacrificing his own,” Stark said.

If this bill gets passed, citizens can expect it to be in effect in August.