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Saskatchewan top Mountie defends chase policy

SASKATOON — The head of Saskatchewan’s RCMP is defending the decision to not chase a stolen truck involved in a fatal collision last week.

SASKATOON — The head of Saskatchewan’s RCMP is defending the decision to not chase a stolen truck involved in a fatal collision last week.

Assistant commissioner Curtis Zablocki told a provincewide radio show that he wanted to extend condolences to the families of three Liberian-Canadian women killed Friday in the crash on Highway 16 near Lloydminster as they travelled from their homes in Edmonton.

RCMP officers had been following the truck, but were ordered to pull back about half an hour before the crash.

Zablocki said any pursuit is monitored by a senior officer in the command centre who has the final say on whether a chase continues.

He said the decision on whether to chase rests on the severity of the suspected offence and the level of danger to the public.

So, for instance, a situation involving a firearm or an abduction would warrant an elevated response, while a call of a stolen vehicle wouldn’t normally justify a pursuit.

Zablocki said those national rules come out of hard lessons learned in the wake of tragedies in years past.

Eva Tumbay, who was 37, Jeannette Wright, who was 53, and 35-year-old Glorious David died in the crash.

A fourth woman who is Wright’s niece, Janet Wright Gaye, who is 32, remains in hospital with serious injuries.

Police have said a 26-year-old man had been arrested and that charges were pending.