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Justification Law enforcement agencies across the nation engage in high-speed vehicle pursuits daily, which often result in property damage, serious injuries and even death. Approximately 1 out of every 100 pursuits ends death, with approximately 42 percent of the deceased being innocent bystanders (Hill, 2002). Police pursuits that end in death, injury, or even property damage impact the lives of many. When a pursuit ends in death or injury to an innocent party, this can cause drastic changes in the family and friends of not only the suspect involved, but also the innocent bystander or officer that was injured or even possibly killed (Schultz, Hudak & Alpert, 2010). This has caused concern among the public, but should also concern law enforcement
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...
High-speed pursuits by police officers have been debated as to whether they are beyond the limits by putting people in unnecessary danger or if they are justifiable in every aspect. In the case of the County of Sacramento v. the Estate of Phillip Lewis a high-speed pursuit ended in the death of one of the fleeing suspects. Parents of Phillip Lewis brought claims against the county, sheriff’s department and the deputy involved, saying that the actions taken by the officer and the policy of sheriff’s department are deprivation of life without due process. This case was first taken to the district court then to court of appeals and eventually ended up in the United States Supreme Court.
Imagine being a police officer doing your daily routine job. You are in a patrol car on the highway, watching the cars and trucks drive by. You are also looking for speeders to warn them to be more careful and maybe you’ll ticket them. It has been a very boring day for you, since you have only been called on your radio once, and it was for an accident (fender bender). Almost at the end of your shift, a blue car drives by going ninety miles an hour, but you know the speed limit is only fifty-five miles an hour. You pull the patrol car out of the gravel area that you had been sitting in and you start to follow the car. You put your lights on and catch up to them. After a few minutes you pull the person over. You get out of the car and start walking over towards the blue car. You are right about to talk to the driver and he drives off, leaving nothing but dust in your face. Now, the adrenaline is pumping in your body, but what should you do? You could call for backup or follow the blue car. Anything could happen. How far should you actually go? This is the question that will be answered in this paper. I will explain what police pursuit is and some different things officers do during a pursuit. I will also give some statistics about the fatalities that have happened in a police pursuit. I will also illustrate my opinion about how far police pursuits should go.
There have been lots of modern technologies introduced in the United States of America to assist law enforcement agencies with crime prevention. But the use of body-worn cameras by police personnel brings about many unanswered questions and debate. Rising questions about the use of body cam are from concern citizens and law enforcement personnel. In this present day America, the use body cameras by all law enforcement personnel and agencies are one of the controversial topics being discussed on a daily base. Body worn cameras were adopted due to the alleged police brutality cases: for instance, the case of Michael Brown, an African-American who was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 2014, Eric Garner died as a result of being put in a chokehold by a New York police officer, and John Crawford, shot and killed by a police officer at a Walmart in Beavercreek, Ohio.
Douglas Baynton’s “Disability and the Justification of Inequality in American History” details the myriad ways disability has been applied to marginalized groups, especially racial and/or ethnic minorities and women, to justify unequal treatment and “as a marker of hierarchical relations” (Baynton 34). In Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions, one of the primary hierarchies portrayed is between the white, English-speaking colonists and missionaries who live almost exclusively on the mission and in large cities, and the indigenous Rhodesian (now Zimbabwean), Shona-speaking people. Given that disability is often used as a metaphor or marker in any social hierarchy, the relationship between the white colonists and the indigenous Rhodesians is
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
The idea of knowing police tactics are also needed when in pursuit. A police pursuit is a chase between an officer and a suspect who has thought to have committed a crime. This can be very dangerous depending on the amount of civilians in the local area of the high speed chase. Without ...
In economic, social and political terms, equality is more of an idea than a reality for many people in America; the majority of money and power has been in the control of White men since colonial times. Ideologies like racism and sexism perpetuate the status quo by isolating under- privileged groups. Problems arise from divisions that are created between two under- privileged groups. For example, the cry for equality loses much of its power when it is fractured into several segmented cries. The book Outside the Magic Circle, addresses this issue. Organizations which successfully fought for equality, like the NCAPT, were destroyed by forces (such as anti communism) which essentially divide the groups’ members and the groups, themselves. Thus, any given group becomes ineffective. This book demonstrates that unity is the best way to fight for equality.
To many, the Unites States serves as the ideal model of democracy for the modern world. Yet, how truly worthy is America of this status? Although it has been said that, “Equality is as American as baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie,” one must be extremely critical when analyzing such a statement. By taking a historical perspective to the question of how “equal” American equality actually is, it is simple to recognize how problematic the “Land of the Free” mentality can be. The early America’s most prominent thinkers have been sensationalized and given credit for developing a free and equal system. However, one can recognize that their manner of thinking was far from this idea of “all men are created equal” by critical examination of their literature.
1 a : the act of discriminating b : the process by which two stimuli differing in some aspect are responded to differently
Over the years, this country has witnessed many cases of police brutality. It has become a controversial topic among communities that have seen police brutality take place in front of their homes. Officers are faced with many threatening situations everyday forcing them to make split second decisions and to expect the worst and hope for the best. Police officers are given the power to take any citizens rights away and even their lives. With that kind of power comes responsibility, that’s one major concern with the amount of discretion officers have is when to use force or when to use lethal force. The use of excessive force may or not be a large predicament but should be viewed by both the police and the community.
Where would we be without them? We’d still be enslaved by the millions, forced to work under treatment made for no human. With no means to better ourselves, we’d remain inferior to all those who enslaved us and treated us as animals. Without those who fought for equal treatment we’d still be segregated by the masses, treated unfairly and no one would utter a word of rebellion because they wouldn’t want to be treated the same. And if it weren’t for those who are continuing this fight, generations after us wouldn’t be breaking new stereotypes and boundaries while asking the same question posed now, where would we be without them?
During a high speed pursuit at speeds of over 100 mph involving an officer and the driver of the sports car the officer lost control and hit and killed a pedestrian on the sidewalk. When this occurred the sports cars driver turned to look back, crashed the sports car and was killed.
There is also another side to police pursuits with its own troubling statistics. We know that when a pursuit begins it usually ends up causing accidents, injuries, and can some times even be fatal. Critics claim that most of these pursuits are unjustified. Some people say that the suspects flee because they don’t have insurance or their license is revoked. They also say most of them are young and act on impulse and make a bad decision to run. Sometimes it ends up killing innocent people that are in the wrong place at the wrong time.
This is a complex argument as police pursuits are viewed as a danger to citizens involved, causing injury or death. But fatalities are a direct result of drivers’ conducts toward the police and pursuit policy; which is continuously being amended for police to perform efficiently.