Brown knows how dangerous police pursuits can be. She was the victim of one herself.
It was June 2004. Brown and her family had just moved to Garner from Charlotte but her youngest son, then 16, had an appointment with his old orthodontist in the Queen City.
Brown had dropped off her son and set out to run a few errands when she was hit, nearly head-on, by a car being chased by the police.
The young driver, she later learned, had been involved in a fender bender witnessed by the police. When the driver fled, the officer gave chase. The speed increased and the driver, under pursuit, began driving erratically.
When he crossed five lanes of traffic, the young driver was doing 70 mph. Brown was going 40.
"It was bad," Brown said. "They needed to use the Jaws of Life to get me out."
Both of Brown's feet were crushed. One heel was destroyed beyond repair; it was later rebuilt with a metal plate and more than a dozen screws.
Her right ankle was shattered, the bone jutting from the skin. Her tibia had to be replaced with a metal rod. And all of the bones in her toes had to be pinned.
Her recovery involved several surgeries and more than five months in a hospital bed in her living room.
At age 45, she had to give up her career as an ultrasound technologist. She used to spend all day on her feet. Four years after the accident, she can barely stand at all.
Brown has never blamed the young driver who hit her. She believes his speed and recklessness were prompted by the chase.
"I blame the police," she said.
Afterward, Brown filed a lawsuit seeking compensation for her medical expenses, not to mention her pain and suffering. She learned that, in many cases, law enforcement agencies are immune.
"I didn't get a cent," she said.
What troubles Brown is that high-speed chases end badly too often.
To me, it's like firing a gun on a crowded street. At some point, a bystander is bound to get hit.
Between 1982 and 2006, 308 people died as a result of crashes involving police in pursuit, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
"It is just a waste of lives," Brown said. The toll includes police officers themselves, and people in the wrong place at the wrong time, like the Lunsford girls.
What makes the losses especially pointless is that some of the suspects being chased, such as the driver in Franklinton, were acting strangely -- but hardly committing felonies.
That's why the International Association of Chiefs of Police has called for caution among law enforcement officers determining whether to pursue a suspect. At the same time, the organization has called for harsher penalties for people who flee the police -- and greater investment in technology that might help police track suspects' vehicles without the police giving chase.
Meantime, for those who ask what police should do when suspects flee a scene at high speeds, the answer is simple: Call for reinforcements, and Just. Let. Them. Go.
