High Speed Pursuit: To Chase or Not to Chase?
Since the origin of crime, criminals have attempted to evade justice. This is evident when criminals tamper with evidence, take hostages, and attempt to flee the scene. With the introduction of the automobile, fleeing the crime scene has become dramatically simpler. As technology increases, these automobiles are safer, handle better, and go faster than ever before. The police therefore are forced into pursuit with their own automobiles, endangering the lives of officers and civilians. So the question becomes, how can pursuits be avoided and then when they do occur, how can they be shortened?
It is important to understand the root causes behind why police pursuit and high speed chases are such
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These policies generally restrict the maximum speed of the officers in pursuit, how pursuits will be managed, and when they will be terminated because of undue risk (Johnson, 2014). Generally speaking, these policies do not restrict other responding officers from racing through city streets at absurd speeds in the attempt to catch up to the pursuit or get ahead of the fleeing vehicle (Johnson, 2014). This is because currently, most police agencies have only a few tools available to them to combat high speed chases. When available, most police agencies use air support to monitor the fleeing vehicles allowing the officers on the ground to slow to a safe rate of speed and continue pursuit with caution (Fischbach, 2015). If air support is not available, precision immobilization technique (PIT) maneuvers along with objects like spike strips that deflate the fleeing vehicle’s tires are all that are available to officers responding to a high speed pursuit (Fischbach, 2015). With PIT maneuvers being unusable in traffic, that only leaves tire deflation devices which have to be set up ahead of the vehicle (Fischbach, …show more content…
While this does effectively bring down the number of pursuits and their resulting damages, it also allows criminals to escape with no challenge. Therefore, some agencies are experimenting with new ways to control pursuits and get them over with quickly and safely. The first method is through the exterior use of products like OnStar (Baker, 2008). The police contact OnStar and when they are ready, OnStar takes control of the throttle and begins to slow the vehicle to a stop where police can then take over (Baker, 2008). Another new method is the use of global positioning system (GPS) bullets. While it might sound a bit like science-fiction, GPS bullets are large tubes packed with a GPS and some adhesive that are mounted to the grill of a police cruiser and can be fired onto the back of a fleeing vehicle (Fischbach, 2015). They can be fired during a pursuit and once they are attached, police officers and slow down to a safe speed and continue to follow the vehicle using the GPS (Fischbach, 2015). While they may seem extremely high-tech and expensive, they are no more expensive than in-car video systems (Fischbach, 2015). Options like these allow officers to safely follow and apprehend the criminal without endangering themselves or the lives of innocent
The chase which initially involved a single police officer turned into a twenty plus police vehicle pursuit of Mr.Deady.
This study was created by Lt. Wells on behalf of the Florida Highway Patrol. Lt. Wells was a member of the Law Enforcement Stops and Safety Subcommittee. This committee is volunteer-based and works under the financial support of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and is affiliated with the International Association of Chiefs of Police. As a me...
Marques, O. (2013, October 7). Police Operations [Lecture]. SSCI 1000 Introduction to Criminal Justice. University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Retrieved November 18, 2013
A true definition of a police pursuit “occurs when a police officer attempts to stop a vehicle and the driver of the car refuses to obey the officer” (Solgen, 1). At this point, the policeman pursues for the purpose of stopping the vehicle or being able to identify the car. The police officer should most likely be in a patrol car, so that the driver is aware that it is an officer. In a pursuit, the speed may vary. ‘High speeds are potentially more dangerous, but even low or moderate speeds can create substantial risks in congested areas”(Nugent, 1).
Part One The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment: An Introduction According to Kelling, Pate, Dieckman, & Brown (1974), patrol is the “backbone” of police work. This belief is based around the premise that the mere presence of police officers on patrol prohibits criminal activity. Despite increasing budgets and the availability of more officers on the streets, crime rates still rose with the expanding metropolitan populations (Kelling et al., 1974).
Quinton, P., Bland, N., Miller, Joel (2000) Paper 130: Police stops, Decision-Making, and Practice. London: Home Office
Birzer, Michael L., and Cliff Roberson. Police field operations: theory meets practice. Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon, 2008. Print.
Lewis and Graves v. Thomas are two court rulings related to police pursuits. In both cases, the court ruled that a police officer in pursuit of a fleeing motorist does not intentionally choose to cause harm to a suspect, and resulting injury or death of the suspect is not due to the negligence of the officer and the officer and agency is therefore not liable (Farber, 2007). However, through the multitude of incidents involving police officers in traffic accidents, there is no case law placing liability on a police officer or agency, unless the officer was in violation of departmental policy or grossly negligent, as shown in Haynes v. Hamilton County (Justia.com, 2017). In this case, a sheriff’s deputy pursued a vehicle reaching speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour in dense traffic. The pursuit ended when the suspect vehicle collided with a civilian vehicle, killing three teenagers. The court ruled the failure of the officer to terminate for safety reasons was thereby
Police brutality is a very real problem that many Americans face today. The police carry an enormous burden each day. Police work is very stressful and involves many violent and dangerous situations. In many confrontations the police are put in a position in which they may have to use force to control the situation. There are different levels of force and the situation dictates the level use most of the time. The police have very strict rules about police use force and the manner in which they use it. In this paper I will try to explain the many different reason the police cross the line, and the many different people that this type of behavior effects. There are thousands of reports each year of assaults and ill treatment against officers who use excessive force and violate the human rights of their victims. In some cases the police have injured and even killed people through the use of excessive force and brutal treatment. The use of excessive force is a criminal act and I will try and explore the many different factors involved in these situations.
It is a myth to believe that an officers job is spend fighting dangerous crimes, in reality officers spend more time handing smaller cases. For example, police officers spend a lot of time doing daily tasks such as giving speeding tickets and being mediators in disputes (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). Handing out speeding tickers and handling minor disputes are far from fighting crime. Police officers spend more time doing preventive measures (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). Preventive measures involve officers intervening to prevent further altercations. Victor Kappeler and Gary Potter discussed the myth of crime fighting as invalid and misleading notions of an officer’s employment.
Everyday law enforcement personal have the possibility to face dangerous events in their daily duties. In performing such duties a police officer could come by a seemingly ordinary task, and in a blink of an eye the event can turn threatening and possible deadly. When or if this happens to an officer they won’t have
As taught in the lectures, it is impossible for police officers to win the war against crime without bending the rules, however when the rules are bent so much that it starts to violate t...
Most law enforcement professionals can agree that when it comes to policing smarter is better. Taxpayers would agree that efficient policing is key to making the most out of budget resources. There are many methods, policies, and procedures designed to prevent and eliminate crime. Law enforcement agencies across the country strive to incorporate new and innovative techniques to reduce crime. Predictive policing is one policy aimed to prevent crime by instituting proactive procedures to predict when, where, and how a crime might take place.
“Each light has a different preset wavelength designed to detect hair, fibers, and body fluids at crime scenes, these lights allow a crime scene to be processed faster and more thoroughly than ever before.” This technology is speedy and can help locate the whereabouts of criminals. The use of in-car camera systems has become very popular, especially by law enforcement. These cameras are used to record traffic stops and road violations of civilians. “From the time the first in-car cameras were installed to document roadside impaired-driving sobriety tests, the cameras have captured both intended and unintended video footage that has established their value. Most video recordings have resulted in convictions; many provide an expedited means to resolve citizen complaints, exonerate officers from accusations, and serve as police training videos.” Photo enforcement systems helps to maintain road safety by “automatically generating red light violations and/or speeding summons and as a result to greatly improve safety for the motoring public.” (Schultz,
Here, we can use the vectors to use the Pythagorean Theorem, a2 + b2 = c2, to find the speed and angle of the object, which was used in previous equations.