Ha, I actually just moved from a town about 15 miles from there. I had to go to Santa Maria to go to costco/trader joes/target, or any other store except walmart. The cops in that area drive like complete douchebags. I lived right on the 1, which is a two lane highway, and I saw a couple chases go by my house where they shouldn't have even been pursuing the person. I mean going 90 swerving around traffic, total disregard for other people that are on the road, shit like that.
Edit: I actually just went to the original article on the local news site and read that the chase mentioned in the article where the car drove into the school started in Pismo Beach, which is a couple miles north of where I lived, with Santa Maria being about 17 miles south. That's exactly the shit I was talking about. Is it really necessary to chase a stolen car over twenty miles at that high of speeds, probably endangering many people's lives in the process? I don't know, just seems like they should have some limits to when they are allowed to go on a high speed chase or when they have to just back off and let the helicopter follow them.