by Mike Patrick

Created on: December 17, 2009

There is a pendulum in the enforcement of the law. It swings back and forth; sometimes taking a harder line on the criminal, sometimes taking a harder line on the police. In the incidence of high speed pursuits, it has been swinging toward more strict control over the police for probably fifteen or twenty years.

Years ago, there was no question. The criminals had to be stopped. To allow otherwise was to allow those criminals to continue preying on the public. Bonny and Clyde, Machine Gun Kelly, John Dillinger and the other infamous criminals of long ago were always pursued.

Unfortunately, in those days, the criminals had accesses to faster cars than the police. Usually they got away. Perhaps many more lives would have been saved it they had crashed. But at their fastest, the early automobiles still didn’t go very fast.

With the advent of modern, high-speed vehicles, a change occurred. Police vehicles were made with police packages and interceptor engines. Criminals rarely had the speed advantage. Even if they did, they couldn’t outrun the radios that notified police units ahead of them to be ready.

Today there is often a helicopter involved in shadowing a pursuit. There is small chance of a criminal getting away if an attempt is made to flee. Still, they try, and they continue to try until they wreck. Why is that?

For some three-time-losers facing long sentences, they would rather go out in a blaze of glory than go back to prison. For the youthful offenders, they may be more afraid of what will happen with their parents if they are caught than what will happen if they are involved in an accident. They’ve never seen the result of a high speed crash and have no fear.

But these aren’t the only types of drivers now involved in high speed crashes. The word is out: the police won’t chase you if you run. And they are right in most instances. For most jurisdictions, the pursuing officer must “know” that the subject fleeing was involved in a violent felony or that someone’s life is in imminent danger if the vehicle isn’t stopped (things like kidnapping).

There are three problems with these no-pursuit policies. The first is in the police officer knowing why the subject is fleeing. When an officer attempts to stop a vehicle, there is always a reason (probable cause) for making that stop. It is usually for a minor traffic infraction, speeding, failure to signal a turn, running a stop sign, etc.

When the vehicle fails to

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