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Evading a Police Officer in California, Vehicle Code Section 2800.2: How Knowing the Law Could Spare You Jail Time

By Walin & Klarich

In California, a police officer does not have to be behind you with his or her lights on in order to pull you over. A recent California Court of Appeals case (People v. Pakes) held that the police only need to make a reasonable effort to overtake your vehicle in order to technically be in pursuit. Evading a police officer is a violation of the California Vehicle Code Section 2800.2. Section 2800.2 states that if a driver flees a pursuing police officer, and the pursued vehicle is driven in a willful or wanton disregard for safety, the driver can be punished by serving jail time. In the Pakes case mentioned above, the defendant argued that the "pursuing" officer needed to be behind his vehicle for a violation of Section 2800.2 to occur. Looking at Section 2800...continue to full post

Full post as published by Southern California Criminal Defense Blog on January 25, 2010 (boomark / email).