When a police suspect fled during a traffic stop for having no truck or trailer license plates on a pickup truck and trailer at Highway 92 and Interurban Road on Oct. 26, 2021, the truck reached speeds over 90 mph, which ended in injuries for a 7-year-old boy and the Tracy Police Chief Frank Thurman.
As Platte County deputies chased the suspect, they saw a school bus with its red stop lights and stop arm activated on Interurban Road, just north of Jowler Creek Road. The deputies decreased their speed when they saw the school bus, but the truck passed the school bus on the left and struck the young boy with the trailer it was towing, resulting in scratches along his stomach.
The pursuit continued on to Highway 371 and North American Road where a deputy was trying to set up spike strips. The suspect avoided them but struck the front passenger headlight assembly of the deputy’s patrol car.
Thurman’s patrol car sat on Elm Grove Road, east of I-29. He was outside the vehicle after he had placed spike strips on the road. When the suspect approached, he drove directly into the driver’s side of the Chief’s patrol car, which struck the Chief and threw him about 12 feet back, where he landed on the asphalt and sustained serious injuries. He was hospitalized and underwent surgery. He suffered two broken wrists and a lacerated finger. He is still under a doctor’s care and a date has not yet been determined for him to return to work. He is undergoing physical therapy.
To help with his recovery, and thank Thurman for his service to the community, Quilts for Cops’ volunteers in the Kansas City area created a unique quilt for the Chief. The non-profit organization makes quilts for injured officers to comfort them during the healing process following a line-of-duty injury. They presented the quilt to Thurman recently.
“I was very surprised, I thought it was a very kind gesture,” Thurman said.
In his long career in law enforcement, he had never experienced any other incidents that caused him any injuries.
Quilts for Cops’ mission is to provide handmade quilts for first responders (police, firefighters, EMT and K9s) across the nation who have been injured in the line of duty.
Based in Oregon, the group was founded in 2016 by a retired 911 operator who also was a quilter.
Nationwide, Quilts for Cops’ volunteers have made 2,492 quilts. Locally, quilters Raylene Mason, Platte City, and Sherry Coulter, Tonganoxie, Kan., have been involved in Quilts for Cops since 2018. They have made most of the quilts for law enforcement officers in the Kansas City, Mo. and Kansas City, Kan. area, and a few for the Springfield and St. Louis areas. Mason presented the quilt to Thurman.
As Chief of Police for the Tracy Police Department there are definitely challenges that Thurman confronts. “One of the biggest challenges would be keeping up with the ever-changing laws that govern law enforcement officers,” Thurman said.
He has been with the Tracy Police Department since 1996, and was with the Platte County Sheriff’s Office beginning in 1981, and retiring from there in 2018.
For Thurman, there are many more rewards in his line of work than challenges, including meeting people in different situations in their lives and in some cases being able to assist them.
His advice to a rookie police officer is to always remember to treat people as you wish to be treated.
The quilt has been a reminder for Thurman of how much the people in the community respect and care for him. The quilt top was pieced by Mason and machine quilted by Coulter.
“The colors are amazing.” Thurman said. “The workmanship put into the quilt was amazing and it was heartwarming to know that people care enough to reach out to injured officers to assist in the healing process. This shows that there are many people who do support the law enforcement community.”
To learn more about Quilts for Cops, go to www.quiltsforcops.com and visit their Facebook page to view quilts and read the stories about injured first responders.