EchoFire <EchoFire@gop.org> wrote in news:sng85n$knl$1@dont-email.me:

> The cop deserves a medal for saving the kids. Two Democrats should be
> executed for penalizing him.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. � Some might call Karl Hirsch a hero.

A Fort Lauderdale cop, Hirsch used his patrol cruiser to help stop a
moving car that had two little girls in the backseat and no driver. But
instead of praise, Hirsch got a 20-hour unpaid suspension.

The Jan. 26 incident caused no injuries, but triggered an Internal Affairs
investigation ordered by Police Chief Patrick Lynn. On May 24, Internal
Affairs investigators notified Hirsch he was being investigated for
potentially violating department policy by �carelessly, negligently or
intentionally causing waste, loss or damage to any city property.�

In the process of stopping the runaway car, Hirsch caused nearly $10,000
in damage to his own squad car.

Lynn declined to comment for this story.

Hirsch, 27, was not able to comment without permission from the chief.

Hirsch, who joined the force in June 2019, comes with a law enforcement
lineage. His late father was a sergeant with the Fort Lauderdale Police
Department; his mother has had a long career there as a traffic homicide
investigator; and his maternal grandfather is a retired Hollywood cop.

The incident was Hirsch�s third accident within the year. There is no
dash-cam footage of the accidents because Fort Lauderdale squad cars are
not equipped with dashboard cameras. All three accidents were deemed
preventable.

Officers with the Fort Lauderdale Police Department can face termination
if they are involved in four preventable accidents within a year, the
city�s Human Resources director said.

Mayor Dean Trantalis declined to comment on Hirsch�s suspension as did
Commissioner John Herbst, who won police union support in his election
last year, and Commissioner Steve Glassman. All three said they didn�t
feel comfortable commenting because they did not have details on the case.

The department�s policies and procedures are designed to protect not only
the officers, but the public, City Manager Greg Chavarria told The South
Florida Sun Sentinel. And the command staff relied on those policies when
reviewing the case.

�This was the officer�s third incident within one year,� Chavarria said.
�We follow a matrix that tells us what action to take. We took action
based on the recommendation made by the chief.�

Would the outcome have been different if it was Hirsch�s first accident?
Chavarria couldn�t say.

But he said he plans to ask staff to review the department�s policies and
procedures to see if there�s room for improvement.

�And if there is, we�re happy to look at that,� Chavarria said. �We always
look to be better.�

Hirsch was involved in two accidents three days apart in March 2022.

In the first accident, he hit another car while backing up his squad car,
damaging one of the wheels. For that, he received written counseling.

In the second incident, Hirsch hit another vehicle while driving through
an intersection. No one was injured, but investigators determined he did
not have the right of way. For that, he was given a one-day unpaid
suspension. He appealed the decision and wound up with a written warning
instead. He was also required to go through driver training.

Here�s what happened on the day he helped rescue the girls, ages 5 and 6.

According to the official record, police were chasing down three armed
robbery suspects in a black Infiniti. One of the suspects was a mother
with her two young daughters in the back seat.

Hirsch, who told Internal Affairs he was providing backup to a deputy
already involved in the chase, saw the driver jump out of the car while it
was still moving and escape over a wall in the 4700 block of West
Commercial Boulevard. Soon after, a second suspect, a friend of the girls�
mother, jumped out of the backseat of the moving vehicle, police said.

That�s when Hirsch noticed a child�s feet hanging out of the rear driver�s
side door. The driverless car was traveling along at around 10 mph by
Hirsch�s estimate.

�It was apparent that this was a 5- to 7-year-old child hanging on to the
inside of the vehicle to prevent themselves from falling out,� Hirsch
wrote in a report detailing the incident. �At this point, I greatly feared
for the safety of the children as this vehicle was picking up in speed
towards an oncoming roadway.�

A Broward Sheriff�s deputy driving an unmarked unit following behind
maneuvered his F-150 truck in front of the car to bring it to a stop.

In his report, Hirsch said he was worried the car might roll backward or
the third suspect might jump behind the wheel and take off. He attempted
to maneuver his squad car behind the Infiniti to barricade it in place.
But as he hit the grass he lost control of his cruiser and ran into the
Infiniti, causing $9,721 in damage to his vehicle.

Body camera footage shows Hirsch racing to the car to check on the
terrified girls, who were screaming and crying but unharmed. The girls�
mother, the third suspect, was in the backseat with the children. Hirsch
scooped up both girls, one by one, and tried to calm them down.

Hirsch�s body camera footage later shows him discussing the crash with the
deputy, Jerry Wengert, who helped stop the car.

�The fact that this car had kids and the ��- feet of the kids were hanging
out of the ��- car,� Wengert told Hirsch.

�But are they gonna say, �Hey, you hit a car that had kids in it? Was that
the smart thing to do, to stop it?�� Hirsch said in response.

�We had to stop it,� Wengert replied. �Like I had a car in front of it,
dude. Because the kids were by themselves in the ��- car. We had no
choice. You think I�m gonna wreck my car like that? We had to stop it.
There was no driver in the ��- vehicle. The kids� feet were hanging out of
the back of the ��- car.�

All three suspects were arrested that day.

According to police, the trio were involved in an armed robbery a month
earlier at a Home Depot in Sunrise on Dec. 26, 2022. A man and woman
walked out of the store with $655 in merchandise, then headed to a black
Infiniti parked out front with another woman in the passenger seat.

Two loss-prevention officers following close behind told police the two
women swung steel pipes at them, forcing them to retreat. As the suspects
drove off, the man made a gun symbol with his finger, pointed at the two
employees and said �Bang bang.�

One month later, two Sunrise detectives conducting surveillance saw the
Infiniti backed into a parking space at Oswald Park in Fort Lauderdale. A
man, two women and two children were inside. When the detectives
approached the car on foot, the man climbed from the back seat to the
front and took off, driving over parking stumps and shrubs and nearly
hitting one of the detectives, who had to jump behind an unmarked police
vehicle.

The detectives followed the car, soon joined by Fort Lauderdale police and
Sheriff�s deputies.

A Broward Sheriff�s Office helicopter followed the car throughout the
chase along on Interstate 95 and through Fort Lauderdale, Lauderhill and
Tamarac.

During the chase, the Infiniti caused several traffic accidents, police
say.

After all three were arrested, both women told police the man driving the
Infiniti that day was the same man who drove the getaway car the day of
the robbery. The man, however, denied any involvement in the Home Depot
robbery.

The girls� mother, Moesha Pierce, is now in prison. Pierce, 27, of Pompano
Beach, pleaded no contest to the robbery and was sentenced to two years in
prison. Shatarise Brown, 27, of Fort Lauderdale, pleaded not guilty and
awaits trial. Joshua Ross, 32, of Pompano Beach � the driver who police
say bailed out of the car on Jan. 26 and was later found hiding in a
nearby hotel � was never formally charged with armed robbery.

According to a memo filed by a prosecutors with the Broward State
Attorney�s Office, there was no independent witness who could identify him
as one of the people who robbed the Home Depot.

After the police pursuit on Jan. 26, Ross faced several charges, including
aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, attempt to flee and elude
law enforcement and neglect of a child without great bodily harm. Those
charges were dropped for different reasons, including the fact that Ross
has outstanding warrants on other felony cases, according to the
prosecutor�s memo.

Wengert was neither disciplined for his role in stopping the vehicle nor
investigated by Internal Affairs, the Sheriff�s Office said. The agency�s
Pursuit Review Board reviewed Wengert�s actions that day and found them
compliant.

In his official report, Wengert said he saw the driver and rear passenger
bailing out of the car and attempting to flee, leaving small children in
the back seat while the car was still in motion.

�Knowing the vehicle had no driver behind the wheel, the fear that great
bodily harm was imminent to the children still inside, and that the
vehicle was headed into traffic and towards a large tree, I utilized my
vehicle as a barrier to immediately and safely immobilize the vehicle,� he
wrote.