LAKELAND - For 21 minutes on a late Friday morning in October, Lakeland police chased a bank robbery suspect around the city at speeds up to 100 mph.

The 27-mile chase ended without serious injury, but had some unusual twists, according to a report by the department's Pursuit Review Board.

First, numerous officers were involved, possibly in violation of the department's pursuit policy that limits chases to officers authorized by the pursuit supervisor.

Second, the chase ended when an officer used a driving maneuver that Lakeland officers aren't trained to do. The review board report, written by Assistant Chief Bill LePere, described the tactic as "outside the norm."

Despite this, members of the review board recently voted unanimously that the chase complied with the department's pursuit policy. Chief Roger Boatner agreed with their finding.

HOW IT STARTED

Shortly after 11 a.m. Oct. 20, a man identified by police as John Olson, his face covered with a bandana, walked into the SunTrust Bank at 201 S. Florida Ave., brandished a gun and demanded money from a teller.

Carrying the cash, he left the bank on a bike, then pedaled a couple of blocks to meet his brother, Michael, who was waiting in a Ford pickup parked near Lake Morton. A witness saw Olson throw the bike in the back of the truck.

A few minutes later, Officer Virgil Cardin spotted the truck on nearby Sikes Boulevard and followed it briefly. The truck took off when Cardin attempted to pull it over on Olive Street.

Cardin was given the OK to pursue and Sgt. Randy Jones was his backup, the report said.

But Cardin and Jones and Officer Darryl Vachon, who joined them, fell behind in traffic. That's when Officers Jeff Barrett and Ted Sealey became the two patrol cars closest to the Olsons.

In his report, Cardin described the chase from beginning to end. He tells of the truck running through intersection after intersection at speeds up to 80 miles per hour. On George Jenkins Boulevard speeds were estimated at up to 90 mph, twice the posted speed limit.

The chase took officers as far south as the Polk Parkway near the airport, north to Gibsonia-Galloway Road, then the truck turned south on U.S. 98 "where he forced unsuspecting motorists to take evasive action," Cardin wrote.

On U.S. 98 near Lakeland Square mall, the truck did a U-turn and was headed north again, this time on the sidewalk and grass.

"It was in this area that the suspect intentionally drove his vehicle into the side of Officer Peterman's vehicle (a marked patrol car)," Cardin wrote. Officer Barrett then drove his patrol car into the side of the truck "bringing the dangerous fleeing suspects to a stop," according to Cardin's report.

The Olsons' truck flipped over on its side and skidded into a Ford Focus carrying two Kathleen High students, who escaped injury.

The Olson brothers were arrested and taken to Lakeland Regional Medical Center for minor injuries.

John Olson, now 30, was charged with five counts of fraud, two counts of robbery and one count each of armed robbery, attempted robbery and a traffic violation, according to Polk County Jail records.

Michael Olson, 23, was charged with two counts of robbery and one count each of attempted robbery, armed robbery, fleeing to elude a law enforcement officer and aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, jail records show.

Both are in the Polk County Jail.

"MASSIVE INVOLVEMENT''

The pursuit went beyond Cardin, Jones, Vachon, Sealey and Barrett, all of whom had permission to pursue. The review board report said police car video tapes and radio transmissions during the pursuit showed "a wide range of officers involved in this incident, including unmarked police cars, motorcycles and plain-clothes officers … At least three or four unmarked vehicles are seen in the area as the pursuit is coming to an end."

The report didn't say how many officers responded, but it referred to "the massive involvement of police officers from every (Lakeland) department bureau, as well as outside agencies, such as the Polk Sheriff's Office."

One reason for the police response, the report noted, was that the Sept. 28 killing of Polk County Sheriff's Deputy Matt Williams was fresh on the minds of officers.

"What is obvious is the fact that many officers went toward the general area in an attempt to provide assistance in whatever manner they possibly could," Assistant Chief LePere wrote. "Armed bank robbery is a serious offense and this incident was less than a month after Matt Williams was killed in the line of duty after being shot by an armed assailant.

"To say that our officers had a heightened sense of officer safety concerns is not an understatement or glamorization of the situation."

The pursuit was directed by Sgt. David Woolverton, who was responsible for authorizing officers to participate. He was praised in the report for doing "a good job of giving commands over the radio to restrict the involved vehicles to specific units."

The report continued: "It was the general consensus of board members that units actually involved in the pursuit followed Sgt. Woolverton's commands. Other units seen on the video were responding to assist in an apprehension if and when the pursuit ended. It is impossible to make a definitive statement that we had no unauthorized participation … It is quite likely that somebody became involved in at least some portion of the pursuit in violation of our policy, but the board cannot identify anyone specifically."

Added to the mix was the department's helicopter, which was in the air prior to the chase, and followed the pursuit from above.

When it's too risky to pursue, supervisors can call on the helicopter to track a suspect, then officers can back off and are alerted by the helicopter pilot when the vehicle stops and the suspect can be found. In police jargon this is a deferred apprehension.

On this day, the officers on the ground didn't call off the pursuit even with the helicopter helping. "Deferred apprehension was not considered to be a viable option due to the fact officers did not know the suspects' identities and the serious nature of the crime, an armed bank robbery where a gun was shown," the report said.

TOUGH CHOICES

The Pursuit Review Board, made up of 11 officers including LePere, reviews every pursuit made by LPD officers and decides whether it was within the department's guidelines.

Chief Boatner said his officers had a real-life decision to make: Go after a gun-wielding bank robber or not.

"There lies the dilemma that law enforcement faces in regards to pursuits," Boatner said. "When you have armed felons who have clearly demonstrated the propensity for violence, our officers had to make some instantaneous decisions as it was unfolding moment by moment."

The chase ended with only minor injuries to the two men in the pickup.

But a pursuit in the early hours of July 17 ended tragically with the death of an innocent driver. Kenneth Roger Gadd was on his way to work when a stolen pickup being chased by Lakeland police crashed head on into his car on State Road 33. On March 9, the pickup driver, Tonya English, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for DUI manslaughter.

TAKE IT OUT

As the Olson brothers' truck sped through North Lakeland, Sgt. Woolverton wrote in his report that, "The suspect was able to avoid all stop-stick deployments and had begun running cars off of the road. At one point during the pursuit the suspect vehicle struck a civilian car at Gib Galloway and Daughtery Road." So Woolverton said he told Officers Barrett and Sealey "to take the vehicle out at the next available opportunity."

Review board members discussed the meaning of the order to "take out" the truck, "since our department does not have a specific reference to this term," the report said.

"A majority of the board interpreted the order to be one that authorized a ramming tactic to end the pursuit," the report said.

That's what happened. When the truck made a U-turn on U.S. 98, Officer Barrett drove his patrol car into the side of the truck, tipping it over.

"This action does not appear to be a deliberate ramming of the vehicle but rather an attempted PIT.'' the report said. PIT is an acronym for prevention intervention techniques, which are driving tactics used to stop fleeing vehicles.

Some departments train their officers in PIT, but not Lakeland's.

"Given the fact that PIT is not something we train to do, officers and supervisors were going outside the norm to attempt such an intervention," the report said.

Woolverton told the board "the order was to use a PIT."

According to the review board what Barrett did wasn't a textbook example of a PIT. "The positioning of the two vehicles was not a classic PIT arrangement, but … it does appear that Barrett attempted some type of modified PIT."

The maneuver ended the pursuit, which was praised by the review board. "Sometimes extraordinary circumstances require innovative and risky decision-making."

The review board recommended PIT training for Lakeland officers.

With such knowledge, an officer can use a patrol car to touch or tap a fleeing vehicle. "If the officer uses (PIT) correctly, the vehicle will spin and should shut the engine off," said Capt. Travis Yates, a PIT instructor with the Tulsa (Okla.) Police Department. "It's a proactive way to end long pursuits."

Such driving tactics require the installation of steel cages, called "rhino bars", on the front of patrol cars.

The Polk Sheriff's Office is also planning to train deputies in PIT tactics, Sheriff's Chief of Staff Gary Hester said.

PIT maneuvers are not in the Florida Highway Patrol's pursuit policy, Trooper Larry Coggins said.

Gabrielle Finley can be reached at 802-7590 or gabrielle.finley @theledger.com