Ask 10 different police departments how they handle police pursuits, and they’ll likely give 10 different answers.

“It’s all different. Each (department) has a different protocol for chases,” said Jerry Wolfskill, director of the Police Academy at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park.

During the course of Tuesday’s police chase through Douglas County and eventually into Missouri, several law enforcement departments tailed a hijacked van down winding country roads.

And the agencies – in Kansas, the Lawrence Police Department, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and Kansas Highway Patrol – all have unique rules when deciding how, when and why to chase a suspect through a residential neighborhood and down rural highways.

The pursuit began in Lawrence, but Lawrence police called off the pursuit because the vehicle’s speed “increased beyond reasonable safety,” according to a police report.

Police ended the chase at 23rd Street and Learnard Avenue while the van sped east toward Johnson County.

But just a few years ago, the department may have allowed officers to keep following the van that 24-year-old Brandon W. Callahan allegedly hijacked.

Revised policy

Lawrence Police revised their policy on pursuits in 2003 after a high-speed chase that started with a report of reckless driving, wound through central Lawrence and ended with the fleeing suspect’s vehicle hitting and killing a Lawrence woman at 31st Street and Nieder Road.

The department added a list of factors officers must consider when deciding to give pursuit, including the population density, road and weather conditions, “performance abilities” of the vehicle being pursued and seriousness of the crime.

The policy also has been changed to state that a pursuit “will be terminated” if the suspect’s identity is known, immediate apprehension isn’t needed to protect the public or officers, and “apprehension at a later date is feasible.”

It’s unclear whether the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office policies are similar.

Lt. Doug Woods said deputies followed the van without using their red lights or sirens until Kansas Highway Patrol troopers could pursue the vehicle.

The chase resumed east of the city on Kansas Highway 10. There, the Kansas Highway Patrol tailed the van until it reached the Missouri border.

‘Just don’t know’

For the Kansas Highway Patrol, the severity of the crime isn’t a factor when officers decide to pursue a vehicle, said Lt. John Eichkorn, a patrol spokesman.

Whether a traffic violation or a felony crime has occurred, Eichkorn said troopers can only guess at what a suspect may be hiding when they begin to flee.

“Sometimes you just don’t know,” he said. “You just don’t know why someone is running from you.”

Chances are, he said, someone who runs from something as simple as a traffic stop often has reason – a warrant, for example, or drugs or weapons in the car.

Kansas Highway Patrol policy states that an officer may stop a pursuit when the chase puts the public at a greater risk than the offender does.

As for Tuesday’s chase, Eichkorn said a preliminary review showed Kansas Highway Patrol troopers followed the policy throughout, including using spike strips and following the suspect with a helicopter.

In this case, he said, there was no confusion about the severity of the crime.

“It was a carjacking,” he said. “There were reports of a weapon in the vehicle. So it appears that KHP policy was followed.”

When the pursuit crossed the state line, the Missouri State Highway Patrol took up the chase, said Sgt. Dan Green, a Missouri patrol spokesman.

Green said that, according to department policy, the chase was relatively safe, traveling through rural areas on dry roads at relatively low speeds.

“There was very little traffic,” Green said. “We were going the speed limit, just about. This guy just didn’t want to stop.”

Green said that if the pursuit would have been different – had the roads been wet or had the van been speeding near schools or businesses – the patrol may have acted differently.

“If people’s lives would have been in danger, the pursuit would probably have been stopped,” he said.