Cedar Rapids police maneuver their vehicles around cones Thursday as part of training at Hawkeye Downs in southwest Cedar Rapids. This year, officers drove patrol cars to improve their handling skills in their own vehicles. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)
Every year, the Cedar Rapids police department has about 40 chases throughout the city. This year, they’ve had 25, and the most recent just happened Wednesday.
The pursuit started in Cedar Rapids and ended with help from other agencies near Center Point.
In all of those chases, Cedar Rapids police say they have very few crashes, and they say a big reason for that is all the training they do.
One of their maneuvers is called a J-turn; it’s for getting away from someone who is shooting at you.
It’s just one of the tools Cedar Rapids police officers train on. The state doesn’t require any pursuit training once an officer graduates from the academy, but Cedar Rapids trains every year.