A more than 40-mile high-speed chase through Carbon County on Tuesday ended in Saratoga with the arrest of the driver and his passenger on felony drug charges.
Andrew Nollen and Erin Kampa are accused of leading law enforcement on a chase along Interstate 80 that began in Rawlins, then made a few loops through Sinclair before finally stopping in Saratoga.
The pair then surrendered without incident, said Lt. Jared Frakes with the Rawlins Police Department.
Nollen and Kampa were initially pulled over in Rawlins for an improper turn and weaving, and as the officer attempted to confirm Nollen’s identity, he took off.
During the extended pursuit, the couple could be seen tossing objects out of the window that were later determined to be drugs and paraphernalia, Frakes said.
There also were felony-level amounts of meth in the car, he added.
Frakes couldn’t say how fast Nollen was going, only that it was in excess of the speed limit.
50-Minute Chase
Nollen, the driver, ultimately stopped on his own in a residential area in west Saratoga about 50 minutes after the pursuit began.
Four agencies were involved, including Rawlins police, three Carbon County Sheriff deputies, Saratoga police and the Wyoming Highway Patrol.
This is the third high-speed chase in Wyoming within a week, including a Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper who rolled his vehicle Friday in pursuit of a homicide suspect fleeing Colorado as well as a chase in Riverton that exceeded speeds of 130 mph.
Weighing Risks
Such pursuits are becoming increasingly more common on the state’s interstates, Frakes said from the perspective of his 24 years in law enforcement. It’s always a strategic decision on whether to pursue.
Each Wyoming law enforcement agency has its own policies regarding high-speed chases, Frakes said, with the primary concern being public and officer safety.
It depends on time of day, traffic density and risk to the public among other factors, he said.
If the identity of the driver is known, officers are likely to let that person go and catch up with him later to avoid the risk of injuries.
In incidents like Tuesday when it’s early morning — 2:35 a.m. — with limited traffic on interstates and city streets, officers are more prone to pursue, though Frakes said it’s always a measured decision given the inherent risks.
“We prefer never to have any of that risk with a fleeing driver, because it’s always dangerous,” he said. “There’s just so many things that can go wrong.”
Surprised By Wyoming Tenacity
Some of the surrounding states have restrictive policies governing law enforcement pursuits, Frakes said. That leaves many offenders surprised when Wyoming law enforcement goes after them.
“We have some drivers that try to speed and evade law enforcement that are very shocked when they get pursued quite a ways and realize that law enforcement officers in Wyoming don’t really give up,” Frakes said.
This is owing to the state’s wide-open spaces and relatively low population densities.
While Nebraska does not prohibit high-speed pursuits, the state has imposed strict liability laws for third parties injured during pursuits.
Many jurisdictions in Colorado, likewise, prohibit high-speed pursuits though some police jurisdictions.
For example, east Denver metro-area suburb Aurora has just reversed its pursuit policy to allow law enforcement to pursue offenders under various circumstances.
Retracing Evidence
In high-speed pursuits like the one in Carbon County on Tuesday, retracing the crime scene to recover evidence is a time-consuming endeavor, Frakes said.
It involves law enforcement watching carefully and calling out landmarks and mile markers along the way on the radio to mark places where evidence drops.
In this case, Frakes said, this typically arduous task was made easier by the driver allegedly tossing drugs near a fire hydrant in Rawlins as well as along the side of a road that was easily discernible.
Jen Kocher can be reached at jen@cowboystatedaily.com.
