Tuscaloosa Considers Stiffer Penalties For Attempting To Elude Police

TUSCALOOSA, AL — The Tuscaloosa City Council's Public Safety Committee on Tuesday approved a measure that will see updated sentencing guidelines for certain offenders found guilty of attempting to run from police during a traffic stop.

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At present, the maximum penalty in Tuscaloosa Municipal Court for attempting to elude police is six months in jail and up to $500 in fines. However, if the full Council chooses to adopt the measure, it would raise the maximum sentence to 12 months and the corresponding fine to $5,000 for attempting to elude police.

City Attorney Scott Holmes said the item came up as a result of discussions with Tuscaloosa Police Chief Brent Blankley, whose department has reported a noticeable uptick in high-speed pursuits over the last couple of years.

"Personally, I think those [high-speed pursuits] should be felonies," Blankley said. "You're putting the officer's life, the general public's life in danger doing that."

Holmes and Blankley both insisted the elevated punishments would be offered on a case by case basis and mentioned examples of those with small amounts of marijuana in their vehicles driving at a slow rate of speed to their home nearby when a traffic stop is attempted because they do not want their vehicle to be impounded.

The aforementioned style of offenders, they both said, were not the intended targets of the elevated penalties.

New measures for the City of Tuscaloosa have also been adopted for low-level marijuana possession within the city limits. As Patch previously reported, those with misdemeanor amounts of marijuana who comply with TPD officers during traffic stops will only receive a citation instead of a trip to the county jail.

"If you sit in jail for seven months on attempting to elude, maybe next time you're like ... 'I'm not doing that again,'" Blankley said. "If you have a dime bag [of marijuana] in your car, we can do you a ticket and you can be on your way."

City officials hope this previous change to marijuana possession ordinances, in tandem with more strict punishments for those who go to extreme measures to elude police, will ultimately cut down the number of high-speed chases.

"One of the things I do want to make sure we state publicly, running from the police is not a very good proposition in this town," Holmes said.

The City Council's Public Safety Committee unanimously approved the measure on Tuesday, which will now go before the full Tuscaloosa City Council for consideration.

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