Just gathering thoughts here...

Anyway, are high-speed chases, on highways and busy towns, worth the trouble and risks for crimes? I guess a murderer or serial killer on the loose could be worth the chase but what about stolen cars and related crimes? Those chases can lead to deaths, many times innocent, and it requires putting the officers' lives on the line for some crime that doesn't require life-threatening action.

I don't think crime would increase if police have to turn away from giving chase to run-away criminals in cars (correct me if I'm wrong). Chasing them does show that the police mean business, though.

Hahaha.

Alright.

No.


"DON'T YOU RUN GUYS! WE'LL CHASE YOU AND SOON GIVE UP!"

"**** HELLA NO COP SUCKAS!"

Wasn't a law passed saying just this?
I think I heard something along the lines that the police shouldn't risk other people's (or their own or the offender's) life if the crime is light.

Stolen cars are normally caught out because the driver is being erratic. In which case he's already a danger to others on the road. If they're driving normally and safely most police won't take any notice in the first place.

Yeah, if cops were not supposed to chase cars, everyone would run from them all the time and no one would ever get caught.

At the risk of minimal collateral damage for the first three or four guys stupid enough to still flee, if every police department in America utilized one of these, the problem would simply go away.

Wow... just seeing that thing speeding beside them along the highway would be enough to make 'em surrender.

"MRS. BROWN! YOU HAVE EXCEDED THE SPEED LIMIT BY 1MPH! PREPARE FOR TERMINATION!"

Reminds me of the great "super cop" legends a friend of mine and I used to make up.

lol. awesome.

on top gear they had a Lotus Elise vs an Apache. The apache couldnt get a missile lock on the car.


...

But the helocopter wasnt allowed outside the boundaries of the track and it could only use missiles. The cannon would have torn it to bits if they were to use that.

Is giving pursuit really about the extent of the crime, or instilling the idea that, once committed, punishment is unavoidable for any crime? Our concept of justice is reinforced by seeing an authority figure chase down a shirtless man and beat him with a stick. Proves we are civilized. Just watch Fox.

But - outside enforcing the norms, I wonder if it's really justifiable to risk innocent lives for any crime other than preventing further damage to innocents (for example if there's a hostage in the car and no one else on the road).

Crimes where only property has been threatened (such as theft - anywhere from shoplifting a pack of chewing gum to grand theft auto) shouldn't be considered worth risking anyone's life to resolve... at least if we're to prioritize human lives over material possessions and assume that the concept(s) we preserve in my first paragraph isn't somehow more crucial than the lives in jeopardy.

If a concept that gives our lives a sense of security and makes society more stable is threatened, then I'm not sure how many innocent lives (if any) will balance out its preservation. Hell, we could just stage police chases and feed them through the media as "real stories" to get the same effect without endangering anyone.

I guess it's complicated?

The thing is, as they're running they're progressively breaking more and more laws.

Raising the priority of their arrest, and endangering other peoples' lives.

You REALLY think because you stopped chasing them, that they're going to stop being a ****?

No way.

First off, everyone who says the "potential risk to innocent bystanders", please show me some sort of statistic that shows how many people are injured because of high speed chases and how that number relates to the number of chases there are. Of course, there are some accidents and it's unfortunate that they happen, but you have to understand, most criminals who run from the police have a reason in their mind to do so. Drugs in the car, warrants, etc. I'd rather the cops get them than let them go. If the cops stopped chasing people who run, it would make the police far less effective.

About 45 years ago in the town of Castleford, ID, two teenage girls were killed by a cop in pursuit of a bad check writer. A bad check writer.

Doen't necessarily mean the cop was at fault, however. Could be, but can;t say.

IIRC both the assailant and the cop ran a red light and the cop hit a car and killed the two teenage girls inside.

Cops have since then formed better training practices on chases, updated courses, and learned how to avoid bad stuff like that.

Plus, girls didn't drive back then.

Girls didn't drive in 1960? wtf are you smoking?

Where in that sentence did he say they were driving? Anyway, I agree with Avenger.

We normal guys call that a joke.



Where did it say they wern't?

Anyway, I agree with JudgeDredd and thus agree with Avenger.

(You don't drive during when you hear sirens closing in on you.)