LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. - Dramatic video from the cruiser cam of a Lawrenceburg police officer shows the dangers of the job.
Capt. Brian Miller found himself in a high-speed chase that reached over 100 mph and crossed state lines.
Before that, the driver tried to cash a stolen check at a bank drive-through and nearly hit Miller with her car.
When the Florida woman tried to cash a check at the United Community Bank in Lawrenceburg, tellers got suspicious and called police.
Bank cameras show Miller -- gun drawn -- as the suspect's car moves toward him.
"I didn't know whether she would potentially assault me with her vehicle or try and ram me or my cruiser," Miller said.
Instead, she backed up and hit another car.
Miller sensed she was fleeing, put his gun away and ordered her to stop. On the video, you can hear Miller yelling:
"Stop! Turn the car off! Turn the car off!"
She didn't, so Miller ran up to the driver's window and pounded on it.
"Turn the car off!" he repeated.
When Miller went back to his cruiser to get a tool to break the window, the woman backed over a concrete divider and took off toward Kentucky.
Lawrenceburg Chief Donald Combs called it a textbook pursuit.
"We always keep in mind the public safety in this, of course, that's our number one priority. But, we cannot let these people go," Combs said.
"She put everybody at risk," Miller said. "She put herself at risk. She put the public at risk while she was fleeing."
The pursuit was very fast.
"There were speeds well over 100 mph at one point," he said.
Boone County Sheriff's deputies put out stop sticks, but the fleeing vehicle avoided them. Finally, the driver lost control in Erlanger where I-275 and I-75 merge and rolled up onto the median.
She was identified as 32-year-old Alma Jo Fields -- also known as Alma Jo Griffin -- and she carried multiple disguises.
"She was attempting to hide her identity as to who she was," Assistant Prosecutor Lynn Deddens said. "She had other disguises in the car -- other identities in the car as well."
Chief Combs praised the actions of his captain.
"It took a lot of restraint from him and his life could have been in danger," Combs said.
"Thankfully, nobody was hurt -- no public, not her and not us," Miller said.
Fields faces charges in two states: wanton endangerment, criminal possession of a forged instrument and receiving stolen property in Kenton County, and fraud on a financial institution, criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon, identity deception and theft in Dearborn County. She also has an outstanding warrant out of Lake County, Indiana.
Fields was being held at the Kenton County Detention Center under $10,000 bond.
She is due in court Nov. 22.
