Failure to Comply With the Order/Signal of a Police Officer
How serious is a Failure to Comply conviction?
There are two basic scenarios in which one could commit the violation. The more serious violation used to be called “fleeing and eluding,” which involves wilfully eluding a police officer while operating a motor vehicle (“MV”). Violations of this sort have been on the rise in recent years. For that reason, Ohio passed a new law, which went into effect in the fall of 2024. Under that new law, all such violations are charged as felonies. Prior to that change, it was possible that you could be charged with a misdemeanorfor “running from the cops” in a MV. Now, it can be a 4th or 3rd degree felony. Furthermore, “running from the cops” in a MV comes with a hefty driver’s license suspension. A second such violation will mean a lifetime suspension of your driver’s license.
In some circumstances, Failure to Comply is still a misdemeanor. Those do not, however, involve “fleeing and eluding” an officer in a MV. Instead, it involves failure to comply with a lawful order. See below for the differences.
How could I be charged with Failure to Comply?
As suggested above, there are two ways in which you could be charged for Failure to Comply.
Wilfully Fleeing and Eluding an Officer
This is the worse of the two violations. You can be charged for this when you “operate a motor vehicle so as wilfully to elude or flee a police officer” despite knowing an officer has told you to stop your vehicle completely.
- Ordinarily, this would be a 4th degree felony
- It would be a 3rd degree felony if:
- You did it after committing a felony, or
- When you did it, your operation of the MV
- Caused serious serious physical harm to persons or property, or caused a substantial risk of serious physical harm to persons or property (even if no harm was actually caused).
- As noted above, this violation comes with an automatic license suspension.
Failure to Comply With a Lawful Order/Directive Given You by a Police Officer
- You can be charged for this while you’re driving a MV, but it is not necessarily “fleeing and eluding.” It can occur, for example, when you ignore a traffic officer’s directives at an intersection to turn around and go back the other way.
- This is a 1st degree misdemeanor.
How can Attorney Tovanche help me?
Avoiding a conviction of any sort would be the over-arching approach. There are various ways to look at the large variety of charges listed above. Because the law requires the State to prove exactly what the statute prohibits, there are many ways to undermine the State’s case. For example:
- Mistaken identity.
- People are sometimes charged with “fleeing and eluding” in a MV, even when police are unable to apprehend the suspect at the time of the incident. Notably, police often rely on cameras to track suspects down after the fact (e.g., street cameras, police bodycam, dashcam, etc.)
- Even if you are pulled over at the scene, it may be that you in fact did not initially hear or see the signal from the officer–meaning you didn’t know you were supposed to stop at the time.
- Even if you saw or heard the signal, perhaps you misunderstood the direction or believed police were signalling another driver–meaning you didn’t know you were supposed to stop at the time.
- Maybe the officer’s car was not clearly marked as a police vehicle, or the officer was not in uniform, so it may have been risky to stop your MV for what seemed to be a random person.
- Perhaps your actions were not done to wilfully elude or flee from the officer but instead to ensure that you stopped your MV in a safe place.
- Medical emergency
What if a conviction seems likely?
First, remember that a case that seems like a “slam dunk” for the prosecution may not actually go very far. We’ll look at the whole picture to see whether dismissal is possible, from the very beginning. If not, and a conviction seems likely, I will tell you so. In that case, I would work with you to lessen the impact on your life by negotiating a plea deal and arguing for the best sentence under the circumstances. At the time of sentencing, I would highlight everything that might tend to minimize the act. The following are some things I would look for:
- The distance and length of any pursuit
- The rate of speed and posted limits
- Whether you violated any traffic laws before or after the pursuit, especially regarding:
- Stop signs or red lights
- Driving toward oncoming traffic
- Crossing double-yellow lines
- How you interacted with police officers once you were apprehended
- Whether harm was actually caused to persons or property
- Any show of remorse for the harm or risk caused