Police chase ends with state trooper in handcuffs after stop sticks deployed

UNITED STATES, March 22 — AUSTIN, Ind. (WAVE) — A police chase in late September ended with a state trooper in handcuffs after officers used stop sticks to flatten the tire of his bomb squad truck. The problem: the truck wasn’t fleeing police.

It was an Indiana State Police bomb squad vehicle responding to an emergency call. The chase began when an Austin police officer helping a broken-down car near a gas station spotted an unmarked white truck with a camper shell pass by with red and blue lights and sirens. “White truck with a camper, unmarked just passed us with red and blues and sirens going west, can you advise, we have absolutely nothing on our cad,” an officer said over the radio.

Dispatchers told officers all state police at meeting Officers asked Scott County dispatchers to call state police. Dispatchers reported back that all Indiana State Police units were at a meeting at the post. “Austin units, ISP advises all their units are at a meeting at the post its not them,” a dispatcher said.

Austin police started chasing the truck just outside town. The pursuit continued north on Indiana 39 as Jackson County sheriff’s deputies and Brownstown police joined. Officers read the license plate, which came back registered to the Department of Administration in Indianapolis.

The truck was a fleet vehicle, but neither officers nor dispatchers understood what that meant. “I looked it up, but it just says they help purchase vehicles,” a dispatcher said. Stop sticks deployed at sharp curve A Brownstown officer set up stop sticks at a sharp right-hand turn on the highway.

Trooper Rick Stockdale saw police lights in his side mirror and radioed to his own dispatch. “Do you know what Jackson County has? They seem to catch up to me running hot,” Stockdale said.

The stop sticks shredded the bomb squad truck’s front tire. Officers drew their weapons and ordered Stockdale out of the vehicle at gunpoint, handcuffing him on the side of the road. “I’m not, I’m a state police officer, bomb squad, going to a call,” Stockdale said.

“We’ve already made contact with ISP, and they said nobody was supposed to be doing anything,” said one of the deputies, “I just called them and they know I’m going,” Stockdale said. State police dispatcher realizes mistake Police eventually connected the dots. “Hey, this is Christi with state police.

I just figured out it is one of our guys going to a bomb call,” said the state police dispatcher to Scott County. “OMG,” said a Scott County dispatcher. A second dispatcher could be heard on the recording, “She literally called them twice, why would they not tell us?

” Officers realized what had happened. “Sorry for the big mishap,” one Austin officer said. “I just spiked a f***ing state cop,” another said.

“We were thinking somebody stole a truck,” an officer said. Trooper insists lights and sirens were on State Trooper Mark Naylor arrived to investigate. Stockdale changed the tire while Naylor interviewed every officer involved.

Stockdale told the Austin officer to make one thing clear in his report. “Make sure you get the right thing in the story. Lights and sirens.

They were on. That’s the biggest thing, is that lights and sirens were on,” Stockdale said. “We suspected it to either be a stolen vehicle or impersonating an officer.

So, that’s what brought us out to here,” an officer said. “I’m not trying to turn this into a huge mess. Any more than it has to be,” Naylor said.

Stockdale left after changing the tire, with lights and sirens. He arrived at the bomb call two hours after the suspicious device was first reported. None of the police departments agreed to on-camera interviews.

Jackson County Sheriff Rick Meyer said the department can hear local channels but can’t listen to all. Indiana State Police said the same, explaining it was impractical to listen to every channel as it would drown out their own radio traffic. No department answered whether they could hail each other on the radio.

The bomb squad did not file a report. The suspected pipe bomb was not an explosive device. “Let’s all get out of here and forget this mess,” Naylor said.