Not The Run I was Looking For

I'll try and tell this story as best I can. Yesterday I'm sitting in court and look back. I see this guy who I believed to have at least one active warrant. I'm thinking, "why is he in court?". I convinced myself that the guy must have already had the warrant served and was in court to take care of it. Just to be sure I come back to my office to check because I don't want to spook him. Sure enough, the warrants are good. I go back to court and he's gone. I'm told by another PO that when I left, so did he. I decide to go downstairs and let the guys at the checkpoint know what's up. As I look outside across the street, I see him. I tell the security guys to call PPD and let 'em know. I head out the door and across the 4 lanes of cars. He sees me coming and the race is on! We start out down the street for about a block and he ducks into the bank building with me not too far behind. We make a lap or so inside and back out another door we go. He makes it across the street with no problem. I unfortunately get held up by a couple cars. That's all it took. I lost him. By the time I get across the street and behind the building there, he could have ducked in anywhere. It's an alley with three other buildings with back doors he could have went in. I look the area over and check out some dumpsters, but no luck.

By the time I return to the courthouse, PPD is showing up with lights going. I happen to know a few of them and fill them in on what went down and they started checking out the area. Needless to say, my boss wasn't enthused about my decision to take chase. I completely understand the concerns, but I believe that deep down we both know I would do it again if needed. Sure, there were things I could have done differently, but you never know how things roll.