Motorcyclist Sought in Pileup Is Identified

When police arrived, they found the SUV twisted into a heap of mangled metal. Nearby, an off-duty police officer in the driver's seat of a four-door sedan was covered in shattered glass. The roof of his car was sheared almost entirely off by the impact.

According to a recent copy of the Prince George's police department vehicle pursuit policy obtained by The Washington Post, officers can take part in pursuits only if there is probable cause to believe that the suspect was involved in the use or threat of physical force or was involved in a hit-and-run accident that resulted in death or serious injury.

An officer who engages in a chase must notify a supervisor through a dispatcher, the policy says. The officer is also required to provide the dispatcher with the location, speed and progress of the pursuit. The policy says that an officer's primary concern should be the preservation of life, not capturing or identifying a suspect.

The sources said Campbell could face a range of departmental punishment, including termination.

But some who are familiar with the case questioned whether any criminal case against the officer would result in a conviction.

Although chases that result in injuries frequently generate public outcry, court rulings on such pursuits have generally favored officers.

In April, the U.S. Supreme Court granted police officers strong protection from lawsuits by suspects who lead them on car chases. The justices ruled 8 to 1 that Georgia police used "reasonable force" when they rammed a teenager's speeding car in 2001. The videotaped chase left him a quadriplegic.

In 1998, the high court ruled in a California case that high-speed police chases that result in death do not violate the victims' due process rights.