Man says he watched ‘Cops’ and decided it’d be fun to run from officers, Ark. police say

A man who led deputies on a chase — first in a truck, and then on foot — said he “thought it would be fun” to run from the cops, according to a post from the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office in Arkansas.

Neil Clem, 28, told the sheriff that he got that idea after he and a woman in his car were watching a reality TV show about police work, the sheriff’s office posted to Facebook.

“We was watching cops earlier and I have a warrant so I thought it would be fun,” Clem said, according to the statement. The sheriff’s office confirmed to McClatchy that Clem was referring to the “Cops” TV show.

Clem, of Ward, Arkansas, has since been arrested, and the sheriff’s office has some advice: Don’t run, you will go to jail tired.

Clem was driving at about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday when he passed four sheriff’s vehicles in a row, according to the post. When he did so, “two detectives observed the driver attempt to conceal his face as they passed at the intersection,” police say.

The sheriff and another marked patrol car turned around to check the truck’s license plate, “but as (it) turned around the truck sped off at a high rate of speed,” the post says.

Clem continued driving with speeds reaching up to 90 mph, and he drove “through a yard and field,” according to the sheriff’s office. When he got back on the highway, the sheriff’s office used spike strips in an attempt to stop the 2014 blue Ford pickup truck.

The truck didn’t hit the spike strips, but it did get stuck in a ditch, the sheriff’s office wrote. That’s when Clem, the driver, started running from law enforcement.

The “short foot pursuit” ended in the woods, according to the post.

Clem was arrested and now faces the following charges: “fleeing in a vehicle, reckless driving, driving on a suspended drivers license and fleeing on foot.” He already had a felony warrant and a misdemeanor warrant prior to the chase, the sheriff’s office said.

The woman who was in the truck with Clem was released and not charged.

This story was originally published February 20, 2019 at 2:10 PM.