Police pursuits expensive as well as hazardous

Like cowboys with lassos trying to round up a stubborn calf, State Highway Patrol troopers tried to stop the driver of a stolen pickup truck in Cleveland this month by chasing, bumping and boxing the vehicle in with their cruisers.

Cutting off the suspect at a busy intersection, they rammed the pickup and pinned it in. They then ordered the driver out of the vehicle at gunpoint.

But the driver rammed his way out of the April 3 melee, leaving the patrol cruisers with crumpled hoods, dented doors and severed bumpers. No one was injured, but the suspect hasn’t yet been found.