recent arrest of a Scottville woman by the Michigan State Police (MSP) as reported by local media pointed out one rather strange policy.  Two, if you include arresting someone for 'drunken driving' when it is unclear that they actually drove while drunk.  Apparently, she kicked and cracked the front windshield while being transported to the local jail in the front seat of the MSP vehicle. 

It was noted the MSP policy for transporting those in custody was to put them in the front seat when only one trooper is in the vehicle.  There was no explanation why this seemingly dangerous policy was the MSP's standard.  It was counterintuitive to what one may first think to be the safest and best way to convey suspects: in a 'cage' in the back seat.

Only about nine weeks previously, the MSP had a more serious problem than a cracked windshield because of this policy.  According to FOX 17 on 10-31-2017:   

"A [MSP] trooper was transporting a suspect to the [Kent County Jail] when the suspect allegedly tried to escape. The suspect was sitting in the front seat when he managed to open the passenger door and get out of the cruiser.
As the suspect was exiting the cruiser, the trooper veered off and crashed into a light pole near the Kent County Health Department. The trooper got out and struggled to re-arrest the suspect.
The suspect wasn’t hurt, and was taken back to jail. State police say he hasn’t been arraigned yet and are determining if they’re going to bring additional charges related to his escape attempt. It wasn’t made immediately clear why the suspect was detained in the first place."

One might expect that if the MSP can't tell the media why they arrested someone, that maybe they didn't tell the suspect why either.  Perhaps that's what made him attempt a desperate escape; however, it generally doesn't matter whether you're public enemy number one or anybody else who has just been detained for some mundane misdemeanor.  As you get closer to that jail, your mind may latch on to some last-ditch attempt at freedom, and criminal (or besotted) minds aren't known for rational thinking at such times.  When the suspect is in the front seat many of those options present a danger to the driver and the rest of society.  

Just fifteen weeks prior to this incident, the MSP were involved in a situation that should have made them review their tradition of transporting suspects in their front seat.  WNEM reports on July 9, 2017:

"Troopers stopped the golf cart and arrested the driver, Phillip Everett, 24, on suspicion of drunk driving. He was handcuffed with his arms behind his back in the front passenger seat.  Investigators said while troopers were outside the patrol car securing the golf cart, Everett was able to undo his seatbelt and get the handcuffs in front of him. He then moved into the driver's seat and drove the patrol car away at a high rate of speed.
The vehicle was discovered by police a short time later 20 miles away, at US-23 southbound near E. Bessinger Road in Arenac County.  Everett crashed the patrol car, killing himself."

Because of the MSP policy and their trooper's carelessness, they created the mechanism for a drunken man to kill himself and present a greater hazard to the rest of the community.  This incident did initiate another WNEM article asking "Why does the MSP put suspects in the front seat?".  The answers they got from the MSP were surprising:

"It turns out that is the general practice for the MSP. When they take somebody into custody they lodge them in the front passenger seat.
MSP said none of their cars have cages in them. It is standard procedure to handcuff a person behind the back and place them in the front passenger seat with the seat belt on.
"That is the way it's always, it's always done. And it's for officer safety," MSP Lt. David Kaiser said.
Kaiser said too much can go wrong if a suspect is in the back seat. The back seat is full of equipment and firearms.
Kaiser said he doesn't know why cages aren't in the vehicles, but he said he's worked at other departments that do have cages and he has had mixed results.
"I've also had people kick out my back window and dive out the window while I was driving down the road with a cage in the car," Kaiser said.
Kaiser has been with MSP for more than 20 years. He has no reservations about transporting someone handcuffed in the front passenger seat.
"It's worked for us as an agency for the last 100 years. This is the first incident we've had of this magnitude," Kaiser said.
MSP headquarters said through policy and training they have developed a way to safely transport prisoners that allows them to minimize the need for cages."

General practice.  Officer Safety.  The way it's always been done.  Back seat full of equipment and firearms.  First incident of this magnitude.  Policy and training.  

Frankly, the arguments don't hold water.  Equipment and firearms are more logically placed in the front compartment or trunk.  MSP traditions aren't always the best policy.  And officer safety?  Really?

When a detainee is in the front and they manage to slip a handcuff off (which happens often), they have access to a door that they can jump out of, the trooper's weapon in their holster, and a mostly defenseless trooper, who has to maintain a hand on the steering wheel and their attention towards the road.  Even with handcuffs on they can cause a lot of damage to the trooper's equipment and disrupt the driver through kicks and lunges causing potential accidents which would never occur if they were doing similar behavior in a back seat cage.

The majority of responsible police departments will understand these factors, and adapt their back seat with a cage and proper restraining equipment for detainees.  PoliceOne website doesn't even mention front seat detention as an option in their "Tactics for Transporting Prisoners".  Cages are inexpensive, as are in-car cameras, yet MSP patrol cars often have neither-- to the detriments of trooper safety.  The MSP does have a lot of extra money to build new administrative facilities such as a $57 million facility in Walker just announced, and moved their main headquarters from a $46 million facility in Lansing after just being there for five years.  

The Oklahoma Trooper Trap website compiled a list of prisoner escapes in the USA for the period of 2002-2007, and some of these recaps show how front seat suspect passengers have a history of mischief done from that position, included are some from those lists that are relevant to the safety issue.  They speak for themselves.

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Well, I gotta say, I never ever heard of such a policy or witnessed anyone being put in the front seat under arrest in my entire life. Why on earth wouldn't there be a cage in the car, and why on earth would weapons and equipment be in the back seat, instead of the locked trunk? And the obvious record on hand for such a policy clearly shows that this policy is ridiculous and doesn't work well at all. Did anyone state when this policy was started? It surely has to be changed back to the rear of the car, else no one is going to be safe anymore on the roads.

It's been the policy of the MSP for their 100 years.  As county sheriffs and city police chiefs figured out that there are a lot of extra hazards involved with such a practice and moved their detainees to the back seat and installed cages to protect them while they drive, the MSP have retained this obscure and unsafe ritual.  

I have not seen any explanation of why they would do that beyond what MSP Lt. David Kaiser has said.  

For the thousands of people who have been transported in the front seat there are relatively few serious incidences. 100 hundred years ago this may have made sense and was reasonable but now the way cars are designed and the fact that computers and other equipment are carried in the front of the vehicle it doesn't make a lot of sense. What will change this practice is a solid law suit when a passenger is injured. Nothing forces a change in policy faster than a good ol fashion lawsuit pay out.

I'm of the impression that the MSP doesn't do a lot of suspect/prisoner transports by design, and their lack of secure facilities and their practice of hauling their firearms in back are a way for them to argue out of transporting suspects (usually to a county jail) when city and county officers are available.  The officer's service revolver, steering wheel, and computer/console are always present and vulnerable in the front and even if the officer leaves for just a second, the suspect can get control of the vehicle if there is a handcuff fail. 

I would presume that the lawsuits launched against MSP and other state trooper agencies that have been launched in the past out of a policy of front seat detainment causing injury have been insufficient to buck their tradition and that will continue until somebody rational is at the head of the MSP department.

 

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