GREENSBORO -- Nudging his police cruiser into the fleeing Ford Taurus contradicted everything Tony Hallinan thought he knew about car chases.
As the speedometer brushed 35, academy lessons sprang to mind: Never contact vehicles with your cruiser. Ever.
Until now.
Hallinan's tap sent the Taurus into a screeching spin. He pulled the cruiser to a stop along the runway of an old airport in Sanford and waited for the beat-up Ford to start again.
"It's something you need to get over, because it goes against everything you've been taught," the 14-year Greensboro police veteran said after the training exercise. "(But) you kind of get a feel for it."
A driving technique dubbed the PIT Maneuver -- short for precision immobilization technique -- gives police what they say is a new tool to stop car chases before speeds creep up.
If all goes according to plan, more than 500 sworn Greensboro personnel will be PIT-certified by summer's end.
Greensboro is the first North Carolina police agency to teach its force the PIT. Highway Patrol driving instructors learned the technique, but no initiative is in place to instruct troopers.
To buttress their training, Greensboro brass this summer changed the city's official chase policy. The change, they say, ensures ideal conditions for attempting the maneuver.
Before, only two cruisers could pursue a fleeing suspect. The number was raised to three.
That decision runs counter to research showing as more police cruisers enter chases, the greater the likelihood of harm to officers, suspects and innocent bystanders.
Statistics through June 30 indicate Greensboro is on pace for a five-year high in the number of suspects who end chases in a wreck.
"Adding the third car, I don't see that we endanger the public any more at all," said Lt. John Wolfe, a training supervisor involved with the maneuver. "There are certainly conditions where it's easier for the public to see three sets of blue lights coming down the road, and hear three sets of sirens, than it is one or two."
The PIT idea is simple. Officers first align their front bumpers behind a fleeing suspect's back wheel well.
Once in position, police steer their cruisers into the escaping vehicle. Perfect execution sends the suspect's car into a disabling spin. Most cars will stall, affording two backup police cruisers time to surround the suspect.
Little, if any, damage occurs to either vehicle. Both officer and suspect remain unharmed.
Police say an ideal PIT move requires three cars: One to make contact with the fleeing vehicle, and two to converge once the car spins out.
"Your overall goal is to immobilize the vehicle so it's no longer a threat," said Mike Maul, a traffic officer and lead driving instructor with Greensboro police. "Our job is to protect the public, and that's what we're doing."
Greensboro police teach the PIT using three vehicles, but officers aren't limited to that number.
"We try to give our officers the knowledge and the training to implement the technique with fewer cars," Wolfe said. "Some nights it's going to be difficult to get three cars involved in a chase."
Data show pursuits in Greensboro reached a five-year high in 2003, with officers initiating 140 chases -- a 46 percent increase over 2001 numbers. Police officials said the number of chases three years ago, 96, was an anomaly and the force averages about 120 per year.
Nearly two-thirds of those chases started because of traffic violations. Slightly more than half resulted in arrests, and 80 percent were less than 5 miles long.
"If we can use this maneuver to end a lot of our pursuits before they go for extended distances and reach high speeds, it will better serve to protect the officers involved, the citizens operating their vehicles on the streets and even the suspects themselves," said Capt. Dwight Crotts, whose professional standards division investigates pursuits. "And if we do this and it's known and it's successful, we may be able to reduce some of our own (pursuit) numbers."
No empirical research exists to back claims made by PIT advocates, but there is anecdotal evidence.
"It's an incredibly effective tool at low speeds and good locations, and I absolutely agree with the department (changing its chase policy)," said Geoffrey Alpert, who studies police pursuit policies and heads the criminal justice department at the University of South Carolina.
"A lot of times, different departments will PIT a car, it spins out of control and takes off in the other direction. Once it's spun around, you have to block it."
Police agencies rarely use the PIT maneuver during fast chases. Officers often lack the ideal conditions: lower speeds and unobstructed shoulders.
Police also learn to avoid using the PIT with certain types of vehicles, such as SUVs or large passenger vans. Vehicles with a high center of gravity easily roll when hit from behind.
Officers in Georgia last week followed neither of the above. State troopers on Interstate 95 attempted to PIT a Nissan Pathfinder on Aug. 17 at speeds in excess of 110 miles per hour. Two people in the SUV died.
The PIT originated during the late 1980s at BSR Inc., an advanced driving training center in West Virginia. BSR first labeled the technique "tactical vehicle interception."
Fairfax County, Va., adopted the method and modified the maneuver for police use. Officials there renamed it the PIT and started teaching other agencies.
"We have found it a very, very successful tool to stop a pursuit before it really gets cranked up," said Capt. Jesse Bowman with Fairfax County police. "The danger comes from high speed, stressful car chases. Our philosophy now is to try to prevent a pursuit before it ever happens."
Fewer than 10 percent of the Fairfax County's 121 chases last year employed the maneuver.
Since training started this spring, Greensboro police have used the PIT twice. Shortly before 1 a.m. on July 6, an officer attempted to disable a fleeing pickup near downtown.
Not everything went exactly as planned. Rather than spin to a nearby stop, the pickup fishtailed before wrecking about 400 yards down the road.
The maneuver failed in a technical sense, Wolfe said, but it halted the pursuit.
"My interpretation of success is if the maneuver ends the chase," he said. "In this case, we made an arrest safely."
Another PIT was attempted a few weeks later. Details were not available Friday, but police said the move was flawless.
Contact Eric J.S. Townsend at 373-7008 or etownsend@news-record.com