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High speed police chases
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wait wait wait...you mean its NOT like the movies in real life?:roll:
allright, i see car chases all the time on TV in la - i swear kcal lives for them.
anyways, as for the bystanders, most are going on freeways. by the time they hit city streets, most people are inside. if they hit anyone outside, then it should be the drivers fault.
HOWEVER there are IDIOTS in LA that PURPOSELY go outside and watch. the last one i saw he drove into his neighborhood, started circling around, and waving to his friends. a truck full of people standing up in the bed drove by also. i was apalled. if he hit one of them, who would be at fault? the idiot for purposely going out there to watch and wave? the driver? they would probably sue the cops for chasing him in the first place and creating an "unsafe" situation.
and no you can't box them in. sending a chopper is useless also. even car chases in the middle of the night, you can't just land a chopper in front of them. its not easy to box them in because they somehow try to meander around it (seen it.)
the last chase i saw, that stupid truck wound up hitting the driver. (everyone was out of the car) i saw another where the guy just wound up stopping and killing himself. usually they'll just wait the driver out as long as he's no physical threat to anyone and let the charges mount if he survives.
anyways, as for the bystanders, most are going on freeways. by the time they hit city streets, most people are inside. if they hit anyone outside, then it should be the drivers fault.
HOWEVER there are IDIOTS in LA that PURPOSELY go outside and watch. the last one i saw he drove into his neighborhood, started circling around, and waving to his friends. a truck full of people standing up in the bed drove by also. i was apalled. if he hit one of them, who would be at fault? the idiot for purposely going out there to watch and wave? the driver? they would probably sue the cops for chasing him in the first place and creating an "unsafe" situation.
and no you can't box them in. sending a chopper is useless also. even car chases in the middle of the night, you can't just land a chopper in front of them. its not easy to box them in because they somehow try to meander around it (seen it.)
the last chase i saw, that stupid truck wound up hitting the driver. (everyone was out of the car) i saw another where the guy just wound up stopping and killing himself. usually they'll just wait the driver out as long as he's no physical threat to anyone and let the charges mount if he survives.
You know what, people would b!tch MORE if they didn't do anything.
LordMorpheus
Diamond Member
The police will no longer pursue vehicles in Saint Louis. A bunch of people got iced in police chases, so they stopped doing them. That doesn't mean the guy gets off, though, the chopper follows him home 🙂
they can just take his plate and mail the ticket. Or show up at his door and arrest him for running. Its not that hard. It sure beats getting broadsided by a car involved in a chase through downtown.
Thegonagle
Diamond Member
That's what the police are trained to do. They call off chases all the time. (Unfortunately, they don't always call it off before something bad happens.) After the ground-chase called off, they do keep looking, often with assitance from the air, then they try to follow him, circle him, and capture him.
I think chasing after people for traffic infractions is moronic, most of the time down here everyone including the cops crash and cause more damage and destruction and even death than the original infraction. It's moronic. They should have a zoom feature on their cameras to take snap shots of the tag number so they can track the car afterwards for traffic infractions. I say they should only chase if the person has committed a violent crime.
A cop can back me up on this, but a lot if not most large drug bust and felons are caught during simple traffic stops. That and when someone runs you don't know if it is becasue they don't have their license or have someone tied up in the trunk.
Also I think most of you watch WAY to much TV. Do you really think EVERY police agency has their own chopper, and even then have it up 24hours a day? Only very large cities have chopters, and even then there is no way of them being every where at all the times of the day and night.
Speaking of high speed chases, I just saw:
on 580 Eastbound in Castro Valley, CA this morning.
One of those new white camero CHP cars with its siren and lights on chasing a Honda accord in the fast lane. There was also a CHP on his bike riding in the middle lane, passing up this Honda. I could see the officer turning his head and looking through the windshield at the driver. They were going pretty fast (in the opposite direction from me, phew!).
I wonder if that car just didn't see the officers or if he's trying to get away. Hardly any other cars around so he could pull over anytime.
Would be interesting to know what his story is.
on 580 Eastbound in Castro Valley, CA this morning.
One of those new white camero CHP cars with its siren and lights on chasing a Honda accord in the fast lane. There was also a CHP on his bike riding in the middle lane, passing up this Honda. I could see the officer turning his head and looking through the windshield at the driver. They were going pretty fast (in the opposite direction from me, phew!).
I wonder if that car just didn't see the officers or if he's trying to get away. Hardly any other cars around so he could pull over anytime.
Would be interesting to know what his story is.
Yossarian451
Senior member
In this situation the vehicle is just like a weapon, if not more dangerous than a gun. THe threat to innocent life is great. I would treat it in the same way as some coked up ass pulling a gun in a 7-11. I would shoot them down. The purpose is not to protect or recover the property it is to insure that the streets are safe. If we allow any yahoo who thinks he is vin diesel and wants to try to run just to get away we are allowing and encouraging worse behavior. By providing the same alternative as if they pulled a gun on the police officer or the public wouldvery powerfully discourage that type of action.
Just my .02, btw if for some reason I ever run for government postions, prolly wouldn't vote for me. But hey, I would solve most of the problems, just would have .00001% tolerance.
Axon
Platinum Member
Completely stopping police chases is a foolhardy notion and the request for it overly simplifies the matter. I am not yet a (NYPD) police officer, but it looks like I will become one in July. I asked a friend on the force, and this is the summary of his response.
Simply placing a helicopter over the suspect is not always possible. Not only are there many areas to hide under in urban areas, there are also many no fly zones that even the police cannot simply intrude upon with permission, such as airports. Furthermore, there are often weather concerns that would prevent the use of a helicopter. It is not a flawless method. If criminals knew that they would only be pursued from the air, you can rest assured they would exploit that advantage to the fullest.
Boxing them in is not so easy either. If it were, there wouldn't be all these horrible stories of injuries sustained from police chases. Ofttimes other units are too far away, or there is too much traffic to fight through to make it to the needed position. Suspects are unpredictable as well, and often drive in random patterns as they attempt to decide their next move.
The City is often liable for injury and typically pays all medical bills in addition to settlements for the families. This comes from tax dollars - yours and mine. Blaming the Police, while typical, is unfair - if the suspect was not fleeing we would not be forced to chase. You simply cannot let a suspect drive off if he/she refuses to comply when asked to pull over - you don't know what's in that car. 99.9% of the time it's nothing, and it's just some cocky f***ker who thinks he can beat trained officers. But godforbid it was a kidnapping or drugs.
Simply placing a helicopter over the suspect is not always possible. Not only are there many areas to hide under in urban areas, there are also many no fly zones that even the police cannot simply intrude upon with permission, such as airports. Furthermore, there are often weather concerns that would prevent the use of a helicopter. It is not a flawless method. If criminals knew that they would only be pursued from the air, you can rest assured they would exploit that advantage to the fullest.
Boxing them in is not so easy either. If it were, there wouldn't be all these horrible stories of injuries sustained from police chases. Ofttimes other units are too far away, or there is too much traffic to fight through to make it to the needed position. Suspects are unpredictable as well, and often drive in random patterns as they attempt to decide their next move.
The City is often liable for injury and typically pays all medical bills in addition to settlements for the families. This comes from tax dollars - yours and mine. Blaming the Police, while typical, is unfair - if the suspect was not fleeing we would not be forced to chase. You simply cannot let a suspect drive off if he/she refuses to comply when asked to pull over - you don't know what's in that car. 99.9% of the time it's nothing, and it's just some cocky f***ker who thinks he can beat trained officers. But godforbid it was a kidnapping or drugs.
Don Vito Corleone
Elite
A lot of jurisdictions have imposed no-chase rules, or rules that limit chases to fleeing violent felons, for this reason. Realistically, your garden-variety traffic offender or car thief is frequently not worth the risk of killing one or more innocent bystanders.
bradruth
Lifer
I'll back you up on it. They're generally referred to as "ten percenters" because 10% of traffic stops end in a felony arrest.
And Spud, do you really think people are running to get out of a ticket? If they're going to commit a felony by evading the police they're probably going to have a damn good reason to do so.
There's so many terrible ideas in this thread that I can't even begin to address them. :disgust:
JeffreyLebowski
Lifer
ok something you guys are missing is that the cop cars have lights and sirens for a reason, it's to alert people that they are there. If some retard pulls in front of a cop with his lights and siren on it should be the retards fault for not paying attention and not obeying the law himself.
Yea say that when the cops call you up.
"Yea we kinda found your stolen car, but after we tried to stop them they juts keep going so we gave up."
Or how about....
"Yea we found your wifes body, bad part was it was found in a car that we tried to pull over but they ran and we just stopped cahsing. Of course our med. examiner says she was still alive when we tried to pull that guy, who is on the loose and we have no leads, over and stop him."
Then people will be calling the police lazy or saying they don;t care. Or someone will sue saying they did not do their job. So either way they look bad. And right now I rather them chase.
Don Vito Corleone
Elite
When my car was stolen, the police refused to investigate even though it was found without an engine, transmission, or interior (they had put it on 4 donut spares to roll it), so it presumably could not have been stripped far from its location, and likely was covered with prints. I was a little surprised, but I think that is SOP for car theft - generally this is not a priority for police departments (in my case it was the Oklahoma City Police).
Your second scenario involves a fleeing violent felon, which as I said before is a different category in terms of priorities.
How's this for a scenario? "Sir, we're sorry to inform you that your daughter Sally is dead. She was playing on the sidewalk with some friends, but she was hit by a patrol car that was pursuing a person suspected of running a red light. You can feel a little better in that she was killed instantly." Is that more appetizing to you?
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