ST. ANN, Mo. – License plate readers and police communication led to the safe ending of a stolen car pursuit, which also involved a child in the car.
The chase ended near Natural Bridge and Goodfellow, where two police jurisdictions not only worked together, but also tapped into new technology in order to track the stolen car as safely as possible.
The pursuit ended with no reported injuries, even though police found a four-year-old child, unbuckled, in the back of the suspect’s car.
It started with a frantic 911 call from a woman just minutes earlier from a St. Ann Quik Trip. She said her car had been stolen, with her son inside.
Police only had a plate to go on, which St. Ann Police Lt. Monica Ruelas says was entered into the license plate reader system.
“Officers are not going to give up,” Lt. Ruelas said. “…especially for the safety of the child in this case. We were told the child was in danger.”
They got a hit in another jurisdiction, where a North County Police Cooperative officer was patrolling.
“You can’t outrun the radio,” Major Ron Martin said. “That information is disseminated. It’s gone all points to every police department.”
The pursuit lasted less than 45 seconds when the suspect pulled over.
“The separation of the child from his mother was maybe 5-10 minutes,” Martin said. “That’s pretty good, when at the end of the day, nobody gets hurt and everybody gets to go back to how it was.”
Ruelas said the child was okay and police were quick to reunite him with his mother.
“The child is safe. The child’s well-being was good when I interacted with him,” she said. “We tried to get him out of there as quickly as possible, so we transported him back to the station. We got reunited him with his mother.”
The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office followed up by charging the suspected driver, Kevin Quinn, with several felonies related to the case, including endangering the welfare of a child.