Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is a pleasure to welcome Douglas County Sheriff Aaron
Hanson back to the program. Sheriff, good morning, Good morning.
We've had another rash of tragedies involving excessive speed in
Douglas County in Omaha and one hundred and forty fourth
north of Dodge, north of Maple. Area seems to be
(00:22):
between Dodge and Maple seems to be a focus. There
was a fatality there, a horrible crash after there had
already been a vigil in that area. And you and
we're seeing these other reports of how many tickets have
been given out for excessive speed. You've decided you're going
to take a harder stand against this. Tell us what's
going on.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, we have no choice. I mean we're not talking
about you know, soccer mom running behind you know, getting
their kids to school, or some hardworking tradesmen, you know,
maybe a couple miles of the speed limit to get
to the job site. We're talking about an organized group
of street racers with modified vehicles grouping up, taking over intersections,
(01:06):
taking over parking lots, beating up witnesses and citizens that
try to call the police on them. We've seen that
over the last week and a half as well, and
then recently as you saw one hundred and forty fourth
in Hillsdale over one hundred miles an hour. I think
when the Oma police, if they release the details of
this individual's speed, I think will be gobsmacked. But you know,
(01:28):
and then and then to memorialize that incident with engaging
in excessive speed after the candlelight vigil, it's crazy. So
we've got real limitations in the current state law. Current
state law, and like other states, does not give law
enforcement the ability to impound vehicles even temporarily based on
reckless driving behavior. So until we get that fixed, we
(01:49):
got to work around. And we're going to consider these
vehicles and the cell phones of these drivers to be
crucial digital evidence and we're gonna hold on to them
for a while.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Okay, warrants, How does that work if the law doesn't
allow for you to impound vehicles?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Well, because currently in the state statutes, there's only a
certain number of violations that can occur in order to
necessitate a vehicle impound. In this case, a speeding ticket
probably is not going to be enough. So we do
have other state statutes who have wilful reckless driving, exhibition speed,
(02:25):
things like that. But in order to prove wilful reckless driving,
it's not just speed alone. You have to prove that
there was other dangerous factors that put the public at risk.
And so the data contained within these computers in the
vehicles and on these cell phones. A lot of these
guys are live streaming, they are recording, and the cell
(02:45):
phones will capture the behavior in addition to the computer
in the car. That can be crucial evidence to prove
that wilful reckless driving. And by the way, a conviction
of wilful reckless driving does result can result in in
that license being revoked for a certain amount of time.
(03:06):
We need that crucial evidence and we're going to get
it any way we can per the law. So it
does give us a legal avenue to seize vehicles and
cell phones, not as a as a penalty, but as
in order to memorialize evidence evidence.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Okay, so we're talking about not what if an individual
is doing ninety or one hundred miles an hour on a
city street, but he's not racing and he's not part
of a crowd. Does that change the equation or will you?
Will you be able to confiscate the phone in that
case too.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I think it's all case by case. You know, a
lot of these guys they not only group up and
act in in group, thank not only almost act like
a street gang, but they'll also do it individually. So again,
you know, every case is different. When we're talking about
these individuals that are repetitively engaging in this type of
reckless behavior, whether it's on their own or in a
(04:03):
group of two or more, we're going to look at
these case by case. So if you're one of these
individuals and if you want to engage in this behavior
on our roadways, first of all, just got pay the
membership to one of the many racetracks we have in town.
But number two, if you want to do this, you
better you better have a bike in reserve, and you
might want to have a flip phone in reserve and
(04:24):
have your cell phone contact backed up because we're going
to separate you from your vehicle and your phone here
pretty soon. If you engage in that dangerous.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Deadly baby, well, I hope that'll be a deterrent. But
you're wonder, don't you if if if having seen the
carnage of a previous accident and attendeddividual and then you're
still speeding. I don't know if there is a deterrent.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Well, there's two things. A is this is this you
got to question the mental health of something that would
do that. Number one, I mean, how do you even
have a conversation, adult, rational conversation about the consequences of
the behavior when you can't you can't even connect those
dots that close timeline. But secondly, hey, parents, listen up, parents, grandparents,
(05:06):
you cannot just buy your kids these high performance vehicles
and just live in blissful ignorance that may or may
not be engaging in this behavior. You've got some responsibility
as well, and a lot of your insurance policies are
covering these vehicles, folks, So you better wise up have
these conversations with your kids and communicate with law enforcement
or your kids are both if we need to get
(05:28):
them out of this type of life.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Aymen, Sheriff, That's what I was thinking, because those those
guys that speeders their age, they're probably sleeping it off
this morning, but the parents, let them know, let them
know this is out there right right, Sheriff. Thanks always
good to have you on.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Thanks s