Photo: mustreadalaska.com
A man from Anchorage, Alaska, had been helping car owners retrieve their stolen vehicles but, as part of a plea deal he just made, he will no longer be able to chase after suspects.
In August last year, 54-year-old Floyd Hall was following a stolen truck when he was pulled over by police. He was hit with a reckless driving charge, which he chose to contest in court. Since then, he’s been trying to prove that all he was doing was trying to be of some assistance to the police, and not on the wrong side of the law.
Prosecutors didn’t agree with him, the Anchorage Daily News reports. So they “bullied” him into entering a plea deal (or so Hall claims), which effectively bars him from chasing after stolen vehicles. He pleaded guilty to one count of reckless endangerment, so he got a 30-day suspended sentence, a $500 fine, and 3 years probation.
Hall maintains he wasn’t chasing after the stolen truck on the day of his arrest, but merely “following” it. The A Team tracks down stolen vehicles by taking tips from various social media platforms, and Hall says they’ve offered to work with the police before. They were turned down, because, according to the cops, too many vehicles are recovered thanks to tips.
On the bright side, “the plea deal isn’t likely to have much of an impact on the A Team’s activities, since most of their recovery operations don’t require them to follow, much less chase, a stolen vehicle,” the publication writes. “Still, Hall is keenly aware of the scrutiny the deal places him under, even if he has no intention of ceasing his crime-fighting efforts.”
On their part, the police say that, while they welcome a certain involvement from the community in crime-fighting, they don’t want watch groups to get the wrong idea and believe they can engage in dangerous chases. “You don’t know (a suspect’s) criminal history, you don’t know how violent they are, you don’t know if they’re armed,” Capt. Sean Case, the commander of the patrol division for the Anchorage Police Department, says for the same media outlet.
Prosecutors didn’t agree with him, the Anchorage Daily News reports. So they “bullied” him into entering a plea deal (or so Hall claims), which effectively bars him from chasing after stolen vehicles. He pleaded guilty to one count of reckless endangerment, so he got a 30-day suspended sentence, a $500 fine, and 3 years probation.
Hall maintains he wasn’t chasing after the stolen truck on the day of his arrest, but merely “following” it. The A Team tracks down stolen vehicles by taking tips from various social media platforms, and Hall says they’ve offered to work with the police before. They were turned down, because, according to the cops, too many vehicles are recovered thanks to tips.
On the bright side, “the plea deal isn’t likely to have much of an impact on the A Team’s activities, since most of their recovery operations don’t require them to follow, much less chase, a stolen vehicle,” the publication writes. “Still, Hall is keenly aware of the scrutiny the deal places him under, even if he has no intention of ceasing his crime-fighting efforts.”
On their part, the police say that, while they welcome a certain involvement from the community in crime-fighting, they don’t want watch groups to get the wrong idea and believe they can engage in dangerous chases. “You don’t know (a suspect’s) criminal history, you don’t know how violent they are, you don’t know if they’re armed,” Capt. Sean Case, the commander of the patrol division for the Anchorage Police Department, says for the same media outlet.
Google News